Dunndone414

7 hours ago, ellitor said:

 

Per Tipton, Denver Jones has in-home visits with Alabama and Arkansas this week. 

Was a bit surprising to me, but John Hollinger tweeted about Jaylin’s pro chances this weekend. (Thunder confusion comment is because they already have two good players named Jaylin/Jalen Williams.)

Washington has announced they will retain their coach. Yates was already a pipe dream, but I think we can now put that to bed (for a season at least). 

Just now, DAG said:

I was talking about the high percentage of volume of shots. Not the actual shooting percentage. Do you watch the pros?

Yes I do - and I understand your point. It just looks a lot better when you make most of them. 

6 minutes ago, Old fan 47 said:

Bama will chew this team up and be done at halftime. I love what BP has done for this program, but after this team I am beginning to wonder about how well they scout talent. We had two of the best players in the nation last year and still we only managed what one win in the dance. Just have to wonder if complacency has set it with BP and this staff. Lose today, like it is looking like and he can longer brag on that Top 25 thing. Just disappointed I guess. 

Bruce was loyal to his guys. Whether that’s a positive or negative depends on your perspective. But we knew coming into this season that KD and Allen are well below SEC average basketball players - this isn’t a surprise.

1 minute ago, DAG said:

I have a healthy respect for you basketball guys @Maverick.AU, @cole256@GwillMac6 

But I just cannot watch this brand of basketball lol. No doubt, I bet it is fun and the players love it, but boy is it frustrating. Nevertheless, it is the way of the game, even looking at the professionals.

Regroup for next time boys.

Do you actually watch the pros? The league shooting percentage continues to climb even as the 3pt attempts rise. This is nothing like the pros, lol.

2 minutes ago, BigBlueWDE said:

I hate this "offense" so much. When does football season start?

#BasketballSchool?

It’s not the offense so much as the fact that we have some bad players. 

1 minute ago, KansasTiger said:

Our offense is so bad it affects us negatively on the defensive end. Our turnovers make it so we don't get good defensive positioning and our mentality on defense is shaken. We've seen that this team CAN defend well when we limit turnovers and take smart high percentage shots and successfully work it inside with Broome. But against teams with good guards we can't do that and it dominoes to bad offense and then bad defense. Bruce can't simply coach hard defense and hope that saves us. He has to fix this offense.

This offense isn’t getting fixed until transfer season. 

One funny thing about us getting cooked by opposing SGs every game is that I’m told the saving grace of our offensively challenged SGs is that they can defend. 

Aden has been named a McDonald’s All-American. I believe he’s the 5th in Auburn history. 

I thought after watching Bryce in the Final Four run our SG position would recruit itself. Our inability to land top HS scoring guards is baffling. 

21 hours ago, AU Is Gold said:

2024 PG Tahaad Pettiford has set his announcement date for February 1st.

I haven’t seen any smoke to indicate he’s Auburn-bound. There’s a paywalled article about him today though, so maybe there is new intel. 
 

I really want Labaron Philon from Mobile, but it’s been a long time since we’ve landed a #1 AL recruit. (Danjel Purifoy in the class of 2015.)

It’s strange that the Atlanta pipeline has dried up on us. Kanaan Carlyle, Isaiah Collier and Stephon Castle were all top 30 c/o 2023 recruits that had been on campus multiple times and they went elsewhere.  
 

Not sure how big of a negative it is, but the UA thing has certainly never been a positive in basketball. 

2 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Can’t add anything that hasn’t already been said. It was one thing to miss on these wing players to the GL, but we’re just whiffing now. I’d contend we’re still doing well, just with non positions of need, but the 2-3 spots have just fielded some abysmal luck as of late 

After a while it’s not bad luck, we just aren’t getting it done. Admittedly we are still recruiting at a higher level than we have in basically any other era, but we’ve fallen behind some of our rivals lately with HS recruits. We have to make a change if we want to stay at the top of the league, whether it’s with assistants or NIL. Most of the SEC is now investing in basketball, and Texas is coming in soon too. 

No point in sugarcoating it, this is a big miss. 

2 minutes ago, KansasTiger said:

I literally said he shouldn't be on any hot seat. He's earned that right by my standard. But that doesn't mean he isn't making mistakes.

Oh I wasn’t meaning to disagree with you on anything. Just pointing out the consequence of Auburn (and Kentucky) giving out these deals. 
 

I also believe (as do you I think) that the program is still in as good of a place as it’s ever been. 
 

Would be nice to put together a big 2024 recruiting class to keep the momentum going, though. 

Just now, KansasTiger said:

I could be wrong, but putting together tidbits I hear about BP letting them play how they want on offense in exchange for them playing hard on defense, and combining that with what I see on the court, it seems to me like BP is essentially coaching one side of the ball. Two years of no guard discipline, no improvement on shot selection, poor decisions, high turnover offense is horrendous.

At some point its not just the players' fault. Not saying BP should be on the hot seat or anything, but start reigning these players in and save them from themselves, damn it.

No hot seats for guys with lifetime deals my friend. Ask Cal. 

On 12/29/2022 at 9:43 AM, gravejd said:

Happy to get the win. Its going to be a grind this year to get any win. We just don't have the offensive players this season. I think our best bet is scoring through Williams and Broome but neither of those guys have the skills to carry an offense. Green is on a bad stretch but i think he'll turn that around eventually. Not sure if Flan and/or KD are ever going to give us consistently what we need to be a really good team this year. Those guys along with Westry were the ones i was counting on to take that next step but not sure thats gonna happen. 

Also FL may have had 5 loses but i'm pretty sure they said that all 5 were against top 50 teams. So while they aren't great by any means they will likely be a middle of the road SEC team. Which is what we are so important win right there

This is spot on. Lose games like that at home and finishing in the top half of the league becomes a challenge this season. 
 

To your broader point: Looking way ahead, we can’t afford to strike out on scoring talent on the perimeter come portal season. The complimentary pieces are all in place to be great otherwise. 

On 12/9/2022 at 2:03 PM, Sani-Freeze said:

Literally the biggest recruit of the Pearl era at AU. Maybe our largest player ever? 

Per Justin Ferguson, would be our heaviest player (at least since 1970) by about 30lbs.

I agree with others, the weight is a little scary with regard to potential injury, but plenty of time for him to work on that. 

Re: our strength of schedule, USC and Washington falling off is balanced a bit by Memphis and West Virginia. They’re both top 30 in KenPom as of now. 

Need Bruce to earn his contract this season if we want to compete for the league. Gotta find some offense. 

7 hours ago, abw0004 said:

@Tiger, do you think we can grow into an elite team this year or is our scoring talent limiting that ceiling?

I’m trying to gauge if we can grow into it like 2019 or if that team was drastically different.  

The 2019 team was 3rd in the nation in 3pt made per game, and 36th in 3pt%. 
 

We are currently 273rd in 3pt per game and 334th in percentage. 
 

We are a very bad shooting team.

Committing at 6:30 eastern. Most indications still point to Arkansas.

If it makes you feel any better, Alabama shot 3-28 from deep tonight against a far worse opponent. 

Doesn’t take much expertise to analyze where this team is headed. Post players and defense will be very good. We have to find some (any!) shooting to have a shot to win the league. Hopefully Westry helps on offense.