BHDAU1

Sorry about that. I wrote too much for one post. I hadn't posted for a couple of games and got a little carried away! It's funny, when you try to write something with good substance here it can be really difficult to do. Something that might take just a minute to say is often a paragraph here. In another matter, I just could not stand it anymore and wrote that total idiot in California, Luca Evans, an email about his AP poll voting on Sunday. I asked him if he was just pulling teams out of a hat for his absurd ranking order (and by "hat" I mean his a*s), or was it because he was totally incapable of evaluating what a good basketball team looks like? His rankings were so jacked-up it was comical. He had Auburn ranked 23rd in the poll prior to yesterday's, and from positions 11 thru 25, 10 of his rankings were graded extreme. An extreme grade means that he placed a team more than 5 spots from their actual composite ranking. I see he has moved AU to 16th this week, double their actual composite position. What can you say other than wow...

Wow, what a spectacular performance from this impressive group of Auburn men. This Auburn basketball team is a sight to behold when they are rocking and rolling, and you just know that the rest of the teams in league are not looking forward to playing them. This Auburn team already looks like what I had hoped they would by the end of the season going into the SEC tourney, and we are just 5 games into the SEC season. They are playing together with purpose, and you can tell that everyone on the court is 100% bought-in to what Bruce is doing with them. This 11 game win streak is not just impressive because they have won 11 games in a row, it's HOW they have won these 11 games that is remarkable. They have imposed their will on the other team in each of these wins, not an easy thing to do for any team to do no matter how much talent you have. If offense is not coming easy to them, they don't push it harder and force up tough shots, instead, they turn it up all the way when on defense, which almost always generates some easy transition buckets and open looks from the perimeter on offense. If Auburn is getting beat on defense by a few set plays being run over and over, or if a couple of the opposing players are winning their match-ups and starting to score a bunch of points, Auburn can slow down their own offense and the game by attacking from the half-court. This gives them more time to get back and get set on defense, while also reducing or eliminating any easy transition baskets the opponent is getting. The Auburn coaches have also made great in-game adjustments to run any hot shooters for the opponent into defensive help, over and over again, to wear them down physically and make sure that any shot they take is contested. This Auburn team has a FULL array of tools available to them to theoretically handle any situation they may run into, the players execute the game plan they are given really well, and they have the players to play any style of basketball they may need to play to beat any opponent. We all know that basketball can be, and frequently is, a game of extremes. A team can get hot and win a game by 25 points against a top 10 team and then the next week lose by 10 on the road to some unranked team, and it would not be huge surprise to most fans. All it usually takes for this to happen is for maybe the top two scorers on the team to have a bad shooting night at the same time, and/or a few guys not playing with focus and turning the ball over too much, and you can drop a game against a determined opponent in the blink of an eye. This Auburn team MIGHT very well be built in a way that all but eliminates that possibility. This is because Auburn legitimately has 2 complete teams of starters on ONE team, and they are all playing together and unselfishly for both each other and the name across the front of their jerseys, instead of the name on the back. If you are an opponent how do you game-plan for Auburn? Even if by some miracle your team is able to stop Auburn in all the ways they can play offense and score points, how do you field a team that can run full speed with Auburn AND handle the relentless defensive pressure they apply for the full 40 mins of the game? We have seen this play out quite a few times now, where the opponent hangs in there and keeps the score close until the last 4 or 5 minutes of the 1st half. By that time the opponent's starters are usually a little winded from being run ragged by Auburn's starting line-up number 2, and then Auburn subs-in starting line-up number 1, which is fully-rested and ready to play at full-speed on both ends of the court. That disparity usually results in an Auburn run before halftime to take a nice lead and demoralize the opponent at the same time, which just had to watch ALL of the effort they expended to keep the score close in the previous 15 to 17 minutes get erased like it never happened in what probably feels like a matter of seconds to them. They go into the locker room with the knowledge that despite playing as hard as they could, they were still out-worked and out-played and now have the added pressure of a points deficit to erase in addition to just winning the last 20 minutes of the game! I'm not saying that Auburn is unbeatable by any means, like I mentioned previously, basketball games can swing one way or the other for a myriad of reasons. Good teams can lose to bad teams if the better team is having a terrible game while everything seemingly comes together for the bad team when it counts. It happens all the time, just about every single weekend there are big upsets. We all know that it is just part of the game these days with the level of parity we are seeing not only within conferences, but across conferences in many cases. With that said, I don't know if I have seen another team that is better equipped to handle these challenges than Auburn, or more precisely, the TWO complete teams of starting-caliber players that Auburn puts on the court each game. In my opinion, it is undeniably the closest thing to 2 teams against 1 that we will likely ever see. P.S. Remember all the times you felt like Auburn had to beat two teams in certain games to win, the opposing team AND the team of refs? Well, now it's an even 2 vs. 2 when that happens to Auburn, and I will always like our chances in that situation! On the flip side, in games where the refs are making calls that all seem to go Auburn's way, our opponent can now complain and make a convincing case that they had to beat 3 teams! I am anxious to see what you guys think of the team at this point, and where they are right now in regards to their development and ceiling. I also would like to hear opinions on how they compare to UK and UT. I know there are other teams that can beat us if everything falls into place for them, but it seems that Auburn and those two teams are well-ahead of everyone else at this moment in time. UK getting that Serbian guy they call "Z" eligible is going to be a big problem for anyone they play if he continues to play like he did yesterday and their team chemistry remains great (which was incredible for his first collegiate game) UT will also be a big problem to solve if their top two scorers continue to dominate and even improve.

One of the other posters replied to my post with the paragraph below: "First, Jaylin Williams has not transformed into a superstar who can carry us to a final four. Jaylin is a nice player who is playing well and has a good tool box. He gives us what we need at the four, but he will not be the deciding factor about how far we go in the post season or if we challenge for the SEC title. This season is is averaging about 1 more point per game than last season, and about 2 more points than his sophomore season. His rebounds, assists, and blocks are less than 1 per game different as well. Since the App. St. game he has had 4 20+ point bursts, but he has also failed to reach double digits twice. On top of all that, his shot attempts are actually down this season from last season and his sophomore season (I'm excluding his stats from 2022 as he was in a role coming off the bench behind Jabari)." To clarify a little, I wasn't saying he is a superstar or anything like that, but to say that he has not transformed his role since Auburn's last loss is not giving credit where credit is due. I think he WAS the missing piece if we are talking about this team's ceiling and whether they can reach it, and it's not a missing piece anymore because he has stepped-up into the role that I think Pearl has been trying to put him in. I calculated some comparisons after the Texas A&M game to see what the biggest changes have been for him and it's pretty telling really. From Baylor to App State, Williams averaged 7 points a game. From the Indiana game thru T A&M he has averaged 16 points a game. That is more than double, a significant change in anyone's estimation. Using those same start and endpoints, his assists went from 1 to 2.6 per game, his turnovers per game stayed at 1, his 3 point shooting percentage went from 17% ALL the way up to 46%, and his overall shooting percentage went from 49% up to 65%. Those are really spectacular improvements, we aren't talking about a couple good games, we are talking about the averages from his first 7 games to the averages of the last 8 ( I did these calculations prior to the last two games). I don't think the last couple games, in which he averaged 15 pts and has missed a total of 0 field goals out of 9 shots, and 2 free throws out of 10 does anything but further support how big of a change it has been for him. As everyone is likely aware, the last game he was perfect from the field and from the FT line which is extremely hard to do. I think the bottom line is that he is being the guy that the team needs him to be to have the most success possible, and it's been a long time coming!

Wow, this team is so F-ing solid in about every respect that matters isn't it! This Auburn team goes from beating Arkansas by the largest point margin in the ENTIRE history of their Bud Walton arena, to a game where then had a real "gut-check" win in a physical battle where the only guy on Auburn's team shooting well was J. Williams. The difference between this Auburn team and some others that might have been just as talented in years past is the ridiculous depth on the bench and the RELENTLESS EFFORT that all the players expend for every minute they are on the court. They had stretches where they were committing totally unforced turnovers and missing point-blank easy shots, but made up for it completely on the defensive side. Baker-M was having a nightmare game for most of his minutes, turning the ball over several times in a handful of possessions, fouling at the wrong time, and missing everything from free throws to 3 pointer to lay-ups. Despite the poor play, he stuck with it and played as hard as he could on defense and redeemed himself by the end of the game with his effort. In the last 10 mins of the 2nd half he was dialed-in defensively, causing A&M to make several mistakes and turn the ball over, along with altering shots in the paint with his length and shot-blocking skills. If you have read this thread from the start, you will notice that a lot of people are recognizing the total transformation of Williams that has occurred starting right after the App State loss in the Indiana game. He went from being thought of as a "bust" by myself and many others to having 8 straight games where he has had a BIG impact on the game! His defense is superb, he has active hands, does well at playing tight to his man without fouling, and is adept at driving his man into help when needed. His offense is exponentially better than prior to the loss this season, going all the way back thru the last two years. Frankly, he went from being a totally unreliable and streaky shooter, with little to no visible self-confidence on the court, to seemingly one of just a couple guys on the team that is getting his shots/offense and scoring points throughout the game regardless of who is guarding him or if he is doubled. We can be pretty damn sure that these last 4 or 5 opponents game-planned specifically for him, and have been totally unable to slow him down at all. When they do occasionally stop him from driving to the basket or from getting an open shot, he is doing fan-******-tastic passing the ball to the right guys and getting assists. His passes are crisp, accurate, and well-timed. His transformation has also included a great improvement in his foul shooting. IMO, he is one of just a few guys on the team that I want handling the ball in the last minutes of a close game and taking the foul shots when the opponent is fouling as fast as possible to try and climb back into the game. This team ABSOLUTELY has the skill, talent, togetherness, confidence, and intelligence to win the SEC regular season crown, the SEC tourney title, or go deep in the NCAA tourney if they keep playing as a team and with maximum effort. I would even go as far as saying this team has the potential to be even better than Auburn's Final Four team from 2018-2019. Its a different kind of team for sure, but one that is built to win games even when their shooting is poor for long stretches. The '19 team could absolutely blow people out and demoralize them hitting 3 point shots in bunches, but if those 3's were not falling it was incredibly hard for them to generate offense.

Well, another good win against Penn at home that could easily have been a "trap" type game. This Penn team will definitely beat some teams they are not supposed to this season, and they likely will be a contender in their conference if they keep improving and shooting the 3 well. Auburn keeps impressing me, particularly when the opponent starts to make a run and Auburn responds by turning up the defensive intensity which translates to the offensive side of the ball too. There never seems to be any panic, rather their focus gets better. At one point Penn got within 9 points after being down by 20 or more, and for a couple seconds you know they were feeling good and had hope that they could win. Auburn immediately responds with a 3 of their own, then AU goes on a 12 or 14 to 1 point run to crush their hopes and dreams. Very impressive. Broome also deserves a special mention for the game he had, how fun was it to see him make some 3's? We all have seen him bury them one after another another warming up, then in the games his shot has been way off. MAYBE this was all he needed to get going. It was obviously a mental thing, and if he has shaken that he could be like Kessler where the opposing big man has to guard him all the way out to the 3 point line. If that is the case, his season is about to get even better and his NBA value will go WAY up. I have not thought about this much this year, but can you imagine the pressure the team feels to keep the non-conference home win streak alive? That has to be a LOT of extra pressure added to the normal pressure to win that always is there. I dont think the players talk about it much to the media, but I guarantee they don't want to be the team that loses and ends the streak.

It has been a superb stretch for the Auburn Tigers these last 4 weeks, as they have piled up not just 4 wins, but 4 DOMINANT wins! During this span we have seen the team play much better together. Regardless of the player rotations Bruce has been using, the guys really have been working together and have played unselfishly. We have also witnessed the emergence of Jaylin Williams as a key piece of the team. Williams appears to have turned the corner, he is attacking the basket on both ends to score and get rebounds, he is shooting better from everywhere, and he looks to me like he is playing with a much higher energy level when on the floor. That effort has resulted in averaging 16.5 points per game over the last 4 games along with 4 rebounds, 3.25 assists, 1 steal, and made 14 for 18 free throw attempts for a FT shooting percentage of 78%. Also quite surprising, Jaylin averaged only 2 fouls and 1 turnover per game during that stretch, this DESPITE Williams being 3 times more aggressive on offense and playing very tight defense with very active hands. If he can keep this up, the sky is the limit for him. Opposing teams will have to spend a LOT more time game planning for him if he continues to prove that this is his "normal" and not just a small hot streak that will end any minute. Sorry to spend so much time on Williams, but I have always thought him capable of being a real talent that had the capacity to take over games for small stretches of time, but I have also called him out for what I thought was lack of belief in himself. I was about ready to write him off after so many chances, so it's only fair that I point out how amazingly well he has played AND that he proved me right and wrong. I was right that he has all the talent to do it, I was wrong to think it was never going to happen for him. Watching him fly thru the air to do some amazing dunks and finish alley-oops was a ton of fun in A-State game! There are some others that deserve mention for stepping up too, but Ill leave that for later. This team is playing really well, and I am very optimistic on their chances of winning the SEC and making a great run in the SEC and NCAA tourney. I DO have to comment about the AP and Coaches top 25 rankings this week (week 8). Are you kidding me? We are still not ranked?? Has anyone been watching our games besides us? LOL Auburn has been crushing teams very decidedly, and I think Auburn is better than Illinois, Gonzaga, Creighton, and probably Duke, just to name a few of the ranked teams ahead of AU. I know some of you could care less and I understand why, but these rankings are VERY important in how the season and tournament plays out. Besides the fact it is very important in determining your seeding, these rankings also contribute to WHERE you play in the NCAA tourney. If you want to play near home so fans can come, you have be ranked /seeded highly. The alternative is playing the first two rounds on the other side of the United States! Thanks to everyone who has posted and participated in this thread, it's been a lot of fun so far.

I decided to wait until after the USC game to make another post here, really for thew sake of more actual stats/data. I said "What a difference a week makes!" after we beat Indiana easily, well, I guess what a difference 9 more days makes! We went from just a total stinker and embarrassment of a game in multiple areas to THREE games in a row where Auburn really dominated the opponent. It has also been a really solid stretch for Jaylin Williams as well, who is averaging just over 15 points per game on .58% shooting, was 8 for 12 at the FT line for 67%, made 4 of 8 3-point shots for 50%, and has averaged 4.3 rebounds and 4 assists per game. That is a very good sign that he may have a very good remainder of the season. If he was able to improve his free throw shooting and grab just one more rebound per game on average, I think most people would call that a superb season for him. Looking at the USC game, Auburn's team stats were really good, just a hair under the percentages that I listed as where they need to be to beat just about anyone. Having watched the game a couple of times, Auburn really throttled USC! It was a little surprising really, I thought AU would win but I didn't think they would crush them. It looks like this team has the potential to go far in the tourney, so I hope they stay focused and continue to improve. Oh, the fact that Auburn is not ranked in the top 25 at this point is just laughable, and a perfect example of the lack of respect that the press and pollsters (including some of the coaches) have for Auburn.

WOW, what a difference one game can make! Two of the three things that Auburn needed to improve upon desperately were LIGHT YEARS better today! They shot almost 50% from BOTH the field AND the 3 point line. AND, they shot a spectacular 87% from the FT line making 20 of 23! FROM 11% one week to 87% the next at the free throw line! That's really just a totally crazy 180 degree change in one week. I'm really not sure how a team that is even capable of shooting 87% at the FT line can shoot 11% against any opponent. I think you could run me to the point of exhaustion and I could still make more than 11% of my FT attempts, even if I had to shot them "Granny style", swinging it up there from between my legs! LOL I'm thinking that Bruce probably had them do nothing but shoot free throws for two entire practices. I'm also guessing that during those two practices, any missed free throws resulted in whoever missed them running a complete lap around the arena going up and down all of the stairs, or maybe he made them run gassers. Regardless of how he got them there, you can tell that it was a focal point leading up to this game. The other BIG change, really was Jaylin Williams with 24 big points. While his mins increased by about 30% over last game from 22 to 29 mins, his shot attempts increased by nearly 300%! He also grabbed double the rebounds from last week with 6 instead of 3, and took 9 TIMES MORE FT's than last game (9 ft's vs. 1 ft). Broome had a crap game but that's OK, we know what he can do. It sucks that his double-double streak is over, but honestly I'll take some of the other guys stepping up and playing well and scoring over his streak. Every single time I am ready to write Williams off as someone that the team just cannot count on to score points, he has a big game. Then I get excited thinking he has finally turned the corner and he will be much more aggressive on offense going forward, so much so that he will be someone that the opponent has to plan for! The week passes and the next game will be a total stinker for him. Hopefully, this game really did do it for him as far as confidence goes. I have always thought he had a lot of offensive talent, he just doesn't have the solid confidence in himself that you have to have to play at this level. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this really will be the year that J.W. separates himself from the pack. Finally, the team play was better as well. It wasn't such a massive improvement that it stuck out at first, but after watching some of the game again for a second time I started seeing some things that give me a lot of optimism that they are gelling faster than I thought they would. The number of assists shot up from 17 to 25 I believe, that's f-ing impressive. What makes it A LOT MORE IMPRESSIVE is that 3/4 or 1/2 of the assists were not to Broome. He only made like 1 out of 6 shots he attempted, so at least 24 of the 25 went to some other player besides him. That is a phenomenal sign that the team is playing more as a team, and that guys are not being as selfish as they have been at times in prior games. 25 assists is the most Auburn has had in a game thus far this season, 4 more than the next closest game total which was against a bad SE La. team that AU beat by 15 points. All in all, Auburn played a REALLY solid game, and quite frankly, it was a very impressive win away from home against a 7-1 Indiana team that has a lot of history, tradition, and pride. They aren't a roll-over kind of team, and Auburn kinda-sorta humiliated them on national TV.... Their only loss prior to this one was against a top 5 ranked UConn team, and they had just won 4 straight, having beaten Louisville, Harvard, Maryland, and Michigan prior to playing AU. It is also noteworthy that 3 of those 4 wins were away or at a neutral site. I have a lot of optimism going forward. Can you imagine what kind of beat-down it would have been for Indiana had Broome gotten his normal double-double that he is averaging? Auburn would have won by 40.

It has been both very fun and very frustrating to watch this year's Auburn Men's Basketball Team. We have seen them play a pretty diverse list of teams already this season, and for the most part they have been able to impose their will on most of them. Pearl wants them to play their style and tempo of basketball regardless of who they play, or how they are defended or attacked on the offensive end. The most successful AU teams in the past have done this, with the alternative being the coaches game-planning to take what the opponent gives them and play tight defense. I like this mindset and it has worked well in the past. With that said, the absolute KEY to controlling the game and tempo is either making most of the open shots to force the opponent into a defense they they don't want to play, OR by creating fouls and then MAKING THE FREE THROWS WHEN THEY GET CALLED! In this last game, they did neither of the two. Auburn will not win against basically any decent opponent they play if they don't do one of those 2 things well. They lost by 5 points, and they left 10 points out there from free throws attempted and missed equating to a FT percentage of 47% (or something close to that which is absurdly terrible), and they hit only 3 OUT OF 27 3-POINTERS ATTEMPTED which left 72 points out there. That's like a 3-pointer make rate of 11%, possibly one of the worst 3 point shooting percentages in a single game of any the Pearl-coached teams. Auburn's rebounding was great, getting a whopping 14 more offensive rebounds and 2 more defensive rebounds than App State. They also have 17 assists which is good, especially compared to App St.'s 6 total assists. Auburn had 66 shot attempts versus 51. Auburn did have 10 TO's, more than App St's 7, and 18 PF's compared to 13. The bottom line is that they should have won this game by 15 points. If you just looked at the number of shot attempts, FT attempts, 3 point shot attempts, rebounds, assists, and fouls only without knowing how many were made, anyone that knows anything about basketball would guess that Auburn would win that game 9 out of 10 times. Their other loss against Baylor was very similar, except the numbers were all much closer and AU shot better. That game they lost at the free throw line. Auburn shot less than 70% at the FT line, and they were called for 10 more fouls than Baylor. This is not an isolated problem as they are already under 70% for the season at the charity stripe, just 7 games into the schedule. IMO, the three things that HAVE to improve to have a really good season and to make a run in the tourney are: 1. FG, FT, and 3pt FG shooting has to improve quite a bit. FG percentage needs to increase to average out to 48% or better, and the FT percentage needs to get above 70%. 72% or higher will win most games for you or at least keep free throws from beating you. The 3pt FG percentage needs to be above 30%, with a 33% to 35% 3pt FG percentage they will be VERY hard to beat. 2. I'm all for giving the older guys on the team lots of chances to step-up and have a break-out game that gets them going the rest of the season, but if it doesn't happen after numerous games and chances, move to the next guy. Not to pick on anyone in particular, but to give an example, if Auburn can't get a minimum of 5 rebounds and 10 points in 22 mins of playing time out of a senior in Williams, no matter WHO they are playing, then go to next guy and give him a bunch of shots to step up. In a ugly shooting game like App. St. where the offense couldn't get going, you have to be able to turn to more than Broome to get points. Williams (a senior) had 22 mins and only took 5 shot attempts while another guy with 4 less minutes took 9 shots, and the other guys who got 20 or more mins took 16,10, and 12 shots. Worst case scenario you give a bunch of other guys more minutes and if they dont do something with them you go back and give Williams or whoever another chance. 3. This is a huge factor with this team thus far, and that is playing together as a complete team. Right now it's often one pass and a shot, or its 2 or 3 out of the 5 playing together and the other 2 or 3 playing for themselves. I have complete confidence Pearl can get this fixed with some more time and finding the right group of guys. We are not there yet by a long shot.

That is why he is the man with the ball at the end of just about every close game. He is great at the free throw line, definitely the best on the team. I agree with you on how tough it is for him to draw a foul though, maybe because he falls down a lot after he drives to the basket even when he is not fouled. The refs see him on the floor just about every time he drives to the basket all game long, so they swallow their whistle. Someone else here mentioned how the team often resorts to playing "hero ball" in the closing minutes of close games. You speak the truth! Unfortunately, these guys in the critical minutes of a close game often abandon proper spacing, don't move enough without the ball to get open, pass to teammates in bad spots where they get trapped, and let one guy try to win the game. There have been multiple times when a guy gets the ball with a great look but passes to someone else because they lack the confidence to take it. These last two losses have been pretty tough to watch, particularly because the same issues the team has had in prior losses keep popping back up. In regards to the comment I made about how well they shoot in warm-ups versus the often terrible in-game shooting, I completely understand that there is a major difference between the two when you add game pressure and a defender. I should have worded it differently because my point is that there are a number of guys on this AU team that have great jump shots and near perfect mechanics that SHOULD translate over to a much better percentage of shots made per game, even when you consider how much game pressure and defense will affect it. I think that the team has a confidence problem that is having a drastic effect on their ability to make shots, much more so than what game pressure and the opponent's defense does. I just hope they can get squared away on the same page for this last stretch. If anyone can make it happen Coach Pearl can.

My freshman year was 1999-00 at Auburn and due to changing majors after two years were completed, and several other things including a year off, my graduation year was 2005-2006. Needless to say, during that time we went from having a team with NBA guys on it to losing records with Jeff Lebo and I went to every game that I possibly could have during that time. I definitely can appreciate the fact that I am sore over a team that is pretty good relatively speaking. It is true that we are spoiled now BUT there is nothing wrong with that. Because of Pearl, we have a program that reloads instead of rebuilds. I grew up in Lexington, Ky. where they are expected to compete for titles every year at UK and that is normal. I think it's great that AU is becoming that way as well. I honestly think that the guys we have could win the SEC, and that we are not behind anyone in talent in a large enough way to expect losses against anyone. Every single guy on the floor for Auburn is capable of double digit points and playing very good defense, the problem has mostly been getting more than two of them to do it within the same game. When that does happen we win almost every time. The biggest question I have that I cant figure out is why they shoot so poorly during the games but during warmups they seem to hit everything. I think there is just a group confidence problem, they have the talent.

I tell you what, every time I start to feel like the team is coming together and improving they come out and play like garbage. It seems to me that we might actually have a problem with how this team collectively handles external pressure from the media, fans, etc. Just as soon as the pundits start buying into them and moving them up in the rankings, they lose. They take ownership of the longest winning home winning streak over last weekend and then they lose Weds. Earlier in the season they lost whenever they played a tough out of conference opponent on national tv. This ATM loss was really a bad loss, not only in how many points Auburn was beat by, but it put us behind another game heading into the hardest part of the schedule with some tough away games. I didn't care about the streak personally, but winning at home against a conference opponent they were supposed to beat was much more important. Turnovers were a major problem along with a very crappy defensive effort against A&Ms guard and in general. That on the heels of a guy scoring 30 on them last game as well! No one should score that many points against this team with how much Coach Pearl stresses defense and with Broome and Cardwell protecting the rim. That is a very concerning factor to me. You simply cannot let anyone score 30 freaking points on you, I don't care who it is, especially when Auburn is only scoring between 60 and 70 points a game on average. Flanigan, Williams, and Zep have got to score more every game. Why the hell did Williams only shoot 5 shots the entire freaking game? He played 28 mins and has got to man up and start being aggressive when no one else is scoring. He has shown some very good offensive skills in prior games, he just honestly seems scared to use them when we need him to. Zep has taken several steps backwards with his shooting, he was a 16 or 17 points a game guy coming to AU and was like 40% from the 3 in college career. Now AU is lucky to get 6 points out of him b/c as of right now he is averaging a pitiful 3.7 points per game....WOW that is even worse than I thought. Flanigan has hit his ceiling I'm afraid, I hope I am wrong but that is what it seems like. He was an NBA prospect before his injury because he was very good on defense and could score in traffic on offense. He had the ability to drive past whoever was guarding him and get in the paint to either get two or get fouled. Now he settles for jump shots most of the time, is ice cold from the 3 point line most of the time, gets maybe 3 or 4 rebounds a game, and is averaging single digit points per game. This is a far cry from what everyone was hoping for. With all that said, I still think this team could be compete for the SEC tourney title, maybe even season title, and go far in the NCAA tourney, but they better get their collective sh*t together really fast. IMO, they need to find that confidence that all great teams have, that belief that if they play as hard as they can they can beat anyone. Having that would do wonders for quite a few of the players who right now look and play scared.

While this loss certainly hurt Auburn as far as national rankings and opinions go, I think it might very well end up being exactly what these guys needed to get their sh*t together. The last few games prior to this one I came away with the feeling that our team had a really high overly-inflated opinion of themselves, in that they thought they could take plays off, not hustle back on defense each and every time, and get behind on the scoreboard, but would still always find a way to win in the end. That is NOT a recipe for success long-term. Ultimately this big nationally-televised "L" should hurt these guys pretty bad, maybe putting a dent in some egos. They would have been in the top ten in the AP and Coaches poll had they won, instead they are clinging to the bottom third of the rankings and are 0-1 in Quad 1 games. I know I would be embarrassed if I were on the team. The big guys have got to be more physical when it's called for, the whole team has to devote more energy to rebounding on both ends of the floor, and there can be no one taking plays off at any time, no matter the score. If they can improve as a team in those three areas it will make a huge difference in the games. With how deep the rotation is we should be tiring out everyone we play by the end of the 1st half. If that is not happening then I think they are not playing to their potential. Yes, Auburn's shooting % needs to improve, but that is secondary IMO to everything else. You can shoot 30% for a game and still win if you dominate the boards, play solid PHYSICAL defense in the paint, and play with 100% effort every trip up and down the floor. We have given away more "free" points than I can keep track of this season simply because everyone doesn't get back fast enough on defense. How many times have we seen one of our guys make a great play and then celebrate at that end while the opponent runs full-speed to get some easy uncontested points or score in a 5 on 4 situation? Those kind of things are so maddening!

I think Tank should stay. A 4th round grade is a far cry from what a 1st rounder gets. I think he could easily move into the 1st round with a great senior season, and with that 1st round pick he will get a GUARANTEED contract. My reasoning for my opinion is that I believe that he will benefit enormously from the new coach and the offense he will implement. Everyone knew that Auburn was going to run the ball 95% of the time from about the 2nd game onward thru the entire season. They knew they were going to run almost exclusively the last 4 games. Despite this, Tank still managed to have some very good games at the end of the season and throughout the year. What would he be capable of with: 1. A greatly improved offensive line that actually opens holes for longer than a second or two consistently, and a line that reduces the number of times by half at least where there is a defender in the backfield and/or at the point of the hand-off from the QB. 2. An offense that can throw the ball on any down, with multiple route trees and numerous formations. In short, an offense where the defense has to actually defend both the run and the pass on nearly every down. I think that just adding these two things to the Auburn offense would do wonders for Tank's production, particularly his average per carry and yards after contact (as the contact will happen after some positive yards are gained instead of behind or at the line of scrimmage. Getting more than 1000 yards should be no problem, even with Tank sharing the backfield. Just my .02 cents.

Oh well if he doesn't want to be here then bye bye and good luck. I think it's pretty safe to say that the o-line was one of the biggest problems on the team the last 2 years. Yes, they did play better the last few games but were not what I would call a very good line. With the exception of maybe 2 guys, the rest seemed to lack the nastiness and aggression you have to have to be good in the SEC. And they committed a metric ton of stupid penalties.