tigerbrotha12

North Carolina just offered. May delay commitment. Guess we'll see.

I know this was about a month ago, but IMO, LaRue needs to be an everyday player. Kid has tremendous pop in his bat and I just don't think he's seen enough pitches in college yet. Considering he has stuck around past the deadline, I assume he's in it for the long haul. What would be really great is if he could turn into a closer of sorts and DH for a majority of games.

Iowa writer just CB'd to Auburn. Separate Iowa writer FutureCasted him to Auburn.

Yes they will. BP and co. have done incredibly well here is what I gather. They were on him early and let him know he was a priority early.

I agree. We've made some good changes. Got to start getting some more revenue into the program though. Jason Caldwell brought up a good point in that you can use the first base line to make suites and/or pressboxes and rent them out for baseball games or for football gamedays for people to watch Tiger Walk from. To me, seating in the outfield has to happen. Darn near every major program in the SEC has it to some extent, and we must keep up even in stadium appearance. I keep saying this, but Auburn has a chance to do something completely different than anyone in college baseball, and that is put a couple rows of seats on top of the monster. The power plant is the reason everyone says its impossible, but if you've been behind there recently, there is plenty of room to build a structure. All you do is build your base directly over the bullpen, and put in seating with low walls in front of each row for safety. Then, you rent those seats out for $25-$30 a game instead of the usual $10 and you've got some increased revenue for the season. It's also a fantastic recruiting angle being able to say "we are the only college baseball team in the country that puts fans up at the top of our monster for you to hit a dinger into. Come see if you can hit one over em." IDK some crap like that. Just have to start getting creative.

He had a chance to go to MSU a few years ago and turned it down. Not sure why in the world he would leave now given the success he's had in recent years, unless the AD just refuses to fund him (which might be true actually...). I think he's the right man for the job but good grief we need some commitment to baseball from our AD

The atmosphere at Baum Stadium last night was one of the greatest scenes in college sports. That was a football environment at a baseball game, and the only way that will happen at Auburn is if people show up. Auburn has proven its ability to win games and compete in the league in previous years. Next step is to host a regional, and one of the ways we get there is by creating an environment that teams don't want to play in. Tennessee committed more resources to their program and have TAKEN OFF in only 2 years. If you aren't a college baseball fan, I urge you to get into AU Baseball. This is the only other outdoor sport that can get anywhere close to a football environment, and you are sorely missing out by not being a fan!

But you said there is a problem with QB play and I don't think that is the case. I think Nix demonstrates a significant ability to perform well with good to fair offensive line play.

I got a very different message from that video than you. I got that it was almost solely offensive line play that led to poor QB play, and thus Nix has not been properly evaluated as a QB yet.

Three 5* prospects are currently in Auburn. Jarace Walker, Zion Cruz, and Nick Smith Jr. That’s 3 of the nation’s top 22 players in 2022 all visiting Auburn today. Crazy.

I believe so as well. I actually really like the Sills pick up. He'll be an effort guy, and Bruce can work with effort, especially on defense.

This may be starting to get resolved. Looks like Sills has found a way....

Looking like there is a possibility Desi Sills will not be a part of the class after all. Transfer credit issue. OP will be monitored and updated should this happen. Expect BP would go back to the transfer portal...

Expecting AU to go back to the portal again here. Need a 4th guard unless Bruce thinks Cambridge can fit that role. I will say Devan showed some really good flashes on driving the paint and finishing or dishing to an open man this past season. I wonder if Pearl will just stick with his guns and go get best available in portal.

I think I would say that the majority of players do not have this luxury of already having a national brand coming out of high school. Hardcore NBA fans may know them, but the casual fan will not. You can build that in March Madness and in college regular season on TV games, plus there are college highlights on ESPn and rarely ever minor league highlights. From the perspective of people being worried about injury, I don't think that matters much at all anymore. If anything, Chuma's stock went UP after his ACL tear, and it didn't seem to hinder Michael Porter Jr. from Missouri either. NBA teams do not seem swayed by injuries anymore. There just doesn't seem to be a huge threat of a career ending injury. Heck, Kevin Ware from Louisville snapped his leg in half in the tournament, and is playing pro ball in Greece now.

OP updated to include 4* CG Chance Westry out of Sierra Canyon

Tipton is not the most accurate insider there is. He's great at edits, but he's a bammer. Bruce has been recruiting Dunning for a few years now.

OP updated

Expected spots: 2-4 Current commits: 0 COMMITMENTS: NONE Recruiting Board: 5* PF Jarace Walker - #7 Player in the country 5* SG Zion Cruz - #17 Player in the country 5* SF Brandon Miller - #13 Player in the country 4* SF Barry Dunning - Committed to Arkansas 4* SG Nick Smith Jr. - Five Star level. 25th overall player, 2nd at his position. 4* SG Justice Williams - Five Star Level. 33rd overall player. 3rd best SG. 4* CG Chance Westry - #33 Player in the country. Possible 5 star by end of cycle. Plays high school ball at the basketball factory, Sierra Canyon in California. 4* CG Tre Donaldson - #85 player in the country, also a 4-star safety prospect in football. Nephew of former Auburn Football WR Duke Donaldson. 4* PG JJ Starling - Top 10 PG in the country and top 60 overall player. 4* PF Joyful Hawkins - #3 player in North Carolina, #124 nationally. Probably been on Auburn's board the longest. 4* SF Dillon Mitchell - #129 Player in the country. Has warmed up to AU as of late. Small taste of 2022. Will post more with new info...

Figured we would have a thread that addresses this directly. Do you think it is more beneficial for a highly-ranked high school player to go to college first, or go straight to the G-League (or some other professional league) given the opportunity?

Updated to include KD Johnson. I'm guessing Auburn is done for 2021, but unsure... one more spot left, but could be held until next year. We shall see.

Not necessarily as AU does have two spots remaining. Bruce is AFTER guards this cycle.

Per a source per JLee: "I think Auburn is going to get him..."

Welp. A big Ole never mind on this thread

...but I still see a very narrow path as to how Auburn can receive an at-large bid to the tournament. Auburn is currently 21-24 overall, and 7-18 in the SEC. They do, however, have a prior win over TAMU, bringing their record to 8-18 against SEC teams. The RPI is at 68 and the SOS is top 15 at 13th overall. Auburn has 5 Sec games and a midweekers against North Alabama. Just for fun, let’s assume Auburn WINS OUT. Yes, that seems impossible but let’s just say it happens. Auburn would be in Hoover as the 12 seed, and possibly 11 if a few things go their way around the league. They would be 27-24 overall and 13-18 in SEC games played. Judging predicted RPI, it would be up to the high 50’s, and the SOS would likely be top 20 still, if not top 15. Now, let’s get weird. Let’s say Auburn gets firecracker hot and wins three games in Hoover, making it to the semi-finals before being eliminated. If we assume Auburn would likely be getting a few wins over top 5 seeded teams in the SEC in this scenario, we can probably see the RPI jumping to the mid to high 40’s by the end of the tournament. Auburn, in this scenario, would be 30-26 overall, 16-20 in SEC games played, 45-50 RPI, and 10-15 in SOS. I THINK this would at least get them under consideration. Now a step further, let’s say Auburn gets FOUR wins in Hoover, but cannot finish off the championship game. Maybe they lost an earlier game, and had to fight through to the end, so they pick up two losses. That would give Auburn a 31-26 record overall, 17-20 in the SEC, an RPI of 40-45 and a top 15 SOS. Starting to at least look like a team the committee has to mention on selection day, right? Finally, let’s go real big: Auburn goes to Hoover, runs through their first four games like wildfire, but run into the buzzsaw that is Vanderbilt in the championship game. This would mean Auburn only dropping one game in Hoover. That leaves Auburn at 31-25, 17-19 in SEC games played, with an RPI likely of about 36-40, and a top 10 SOS. That, my friends, is a good-side-of-bubble tournament team IMO. The path is narrow, but I got too much Auburn in me to give up until I don’t see a way. Heck let’s just win the dern tournament and not worry about it.