AUSCalum87

See again, I think we are forgetting to ask yourself did they upgrade anywhere from last besides center? Their guards from the portal were all ranked below Pegues. The players coming back from the Final four team are average defenders at best. If you know basketball, you either can play defense or not. Also, their style of play doesn’t allow them to play the type of defense Auburn plays. I really believe people are overvaluing their team. This is pretty much the same team that got trampled by Auburn last year and are actually losing some of their fire power on offense.

Oh no doubt he is a prolific scorer. Just look at his games and highlights, he has that scorer’s mentality.

Well to be fair they were playing absolutely no defense 🤣. However, I do agree and I’ve been posting this constantly that if Tahaad was 3-4 inches taller he would be a lottery pick for next year’s draft. He is a gifted athlete, he will be playing ALOT this year. I say we better enjoy him while we can because I still think he’s going to be drafted next year.

Yep! Honestly, where do they have such a HUGE advantage over us in the starting 5? Sears over Pegues? Ok, but I don’t see that as a HUGE advantage. I think people are really underestimating Pegues’ potential. I would take Denver and Kelly over Wrightsell. CBM over Stephenson. Broome over Nelson and their center. Our real wild card is Chaney and how much he develops. If he even just averages about 10-11 ppg, we will be a juggernaut. But yea, again, when you really start dissecting the rosters, you’ll see that UAT is not some unbeatable team. Outside of Sears, they didn’t upgrade at all in their backcourt compared to what they had last year. The only thing they did improve in their front court was sacrifice their offense with defense with the Rutgers player. Again, no huge upgrades they have made. And again, their roster makes no sense when you look at it at a basketball standpoint.

Thanks aubiefifty! I saw the On3 one yesterday, very good analysis. Just watched the 247 one with Trotter. Really fair analysis as well. Kind of shocked to hear a national sports media reporter be objective and say even with Sears coming back, he has Auburn as the number 1 team in the SEC. I also wanted to make a point about what the 247 guys discussed in their video that I have asked and discussed about but I have not received an answer from pro UAT guys (ahem DTR ahem). UAT has a very talented roster, no doubt. However, as they brought up, it really doesn’t make any sense per se. As in, do these guys really fit or did he just get talented players and is going to see what happens. I mean, they have 7 guards. Only like 4-5 of them are going to play. They have 5 forwards but only like 3-4 will play. Their center is a liability on offense, which is exactly what I said when he committed to them. I have said this all along, their roster really makes no sense from a basketball standpoint. I’ve also said this too: Do you honestly believe Youngblood, Aden, Pepperdine kid and the two high schoolers are better than what they lost from last year? I don’t at all. I mean, Pegues was rated higher than any of their portal guards. Then you have Nelson who is vastly overrated and was dominated by most quality big men he played against. I just think people are really really overhyping them and again, if you know basketball, understanding that their roster really makes no sense.

Pretty shocked to see Auburn as number 1. But I really believe Auburn and UAT are interchangeable. Only real difference is that they have a 3 year start returning at PG and we have a veteran guard coming in to play at this level the first time.

So I think Ole Miss could make some noise, how much I’m not really sure. They do have some really good pieces and as much as I loathe their coach he can coach. The SEC is LOADED this year. I think there are 5 tiers: Tier 1: Auburn, UAT Tier 2: UF and A&M Tier 3: UT, Arkansas, UK and Texas Tier 4: Ole Miss, MSU, UGA and LSU Tier 5: Mizzou, South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma

I don’t know if I would go that far, but I do agree, with this roster and having possibly at least 3 players who could be on NBA rosters next year with Broome, Kelly and Pettiford, I will be extremely disappointed if we don’t get to the very least the Elite 8. Without knowing how our schedule sets up, it’s difficult to make a prediction in conference but just going by who our conference opponents will be, I believe the floor with this team is 12-6 and the ceiling is 16-2.

Yea, I have no idea what they are looking at with Purdue. I’ll go as far to say they are a fringe top 25 team. That’s why though I don’t pay attention to these preseason rankings. There’s very little substance on how they rank and more about pushing narratives and agendas to promote certain programs. Like I said, UAT has a top 10 roster like Auburn. Neither one have a top 5 roster.

Oh no, I agree completely on how having a tough OOC schedule has on seeding and how a team can perform in the postseason. I also believe there needs to be context as well. I mean, do you think a team who goes 0-5 against top 20 nonconference teams with three of those losses by double digits is better than a team who plays 2 top 20 teams and goes 1-1 in those games? That’s my point. At some point you have to win those big games. I digress though. I’ve always wanted Auburn to play a tough nonconference schedule. Basically play 5-6 top 25 teams along with some strong mid majors. I hate seeing teams that you know Auburn will win by 20 plus. I don’t think you learn anything from those types of games. I have always been a competitor as well though, as in I always wanted to play the best to prove that I belong compared to playing teams I know couldn’t guard me and had to mentally get psyched to play them and not take them for granted.

I think it’s a little more complicated than that as well. Pearl has a reputation in college and isn’t liked by a lot of coaches due to some of his past transgressions. But also, I think they schedule OOC schedules strategically correlated with the strength of that year’s team. We had a pretty good schedule in 2018-2019 as well as when we had Jabari and Walker, not too tough but not weak. We’ve had weaker schedules in the past couple of years due to Bruce probably thinking that getting wins is more important to gain confidence with the team no matter who it’s against. As you pointed out as well though, last year we did schedule some tough OOC games with Baylor, USC and Indiana, who were all preseason top 20 teams. And played at App St., which no power conference team would ever do. So it wasn’t like he scheduled nothing but cupcakes, can’t help how teams do throughout the year. But for this year, from what I’ve been reading, it looks like Bruce is being really aggressive with the OOC schedule because he probably sees the potential of this team and wants them to get as much experience with the best teams as possible to be ready for the conference season and postseason.

Oh gotcha, that makes sense! Yea, you will never see me defend them. I’ll say they have a good team but I’m not going to be defending them to make a point.

It’s going to be like this for the rest of the preseason magazines. UAT makes them money, despite having the 5th or 6th best roster. I mean, how is Purdue in the top 10? I still say Baylor is overrated as well. And UNC is getting way too much love. Finally, not having Auburn in the top 10 is farcical.

Oh no worries, just a misunderstanding! I was making sure I didn’t say anything to make someone think I’m a fan of that team. Trust me, I have quite the disdain for UAT. I can’t even call them by their name or even speak their names without being nauseated 🤣

As I’ve stated in earlier posts, unless you are a lottery pick or you just want to be done with college, there’s really no reason to go pro anymore with NIL. You can make more with NIL than being a two way player in the league or going overseas as a pro. So yea, makes no sense to go pro anymore nowadays unless you are a top 15 pick.

I’m kind of confused, sorry for my naivety. Are you saying I’m an UAT fan or something?

Great in depth analysis of our roster by Hokanson and JHead from On3.

It’s been confirmed with Miles Kelly: he has officially withdrawn from the NBA draft. He is expected to sign soon with Auburn! He was seen as high second round pick but could be a first round pick with a great year next year.

Yea, can’t really understand that phrasing. Again, that’s why you have to look at more than just stats. Look at how they did the last 10 games, who they lost to and how they lost will give you a much better indication of how well that team is playing or not.

Ok, hold on, you thought that Clemson and UNC were “great” teams? I don’t know what to say to that. I’m just going to shake my head and put my face in my palms. Those teams were a little above average in a weak conference last year. And again, just because you play a tough nonconference doesn’t necessarily mean you are a great team. They still lost all of those games. And yes, they had to play UK, UT, UF and SC twice, but that meant also they had more chances to prove their worth. Auburn had less chances to prove their worth since they only got to play UT once, at UT and at UF, which they got their revenge in the SEC tournament. So yea, Auburn also didn’t have many chances to prove their worth. And I’ve already said, in basketball, more than anything else, you have to use the eye test more so than stats because if you looked at Auburn objectively the whole year, you would have seen that we wouldn’t make it past the first weekend because of our mediocre guard play. And it’s why Auburn struggled with many teams who had good guard play. I never thought Auburn was a national contender even though many people were picking us to make a run. The same with UAT. If you saw their box scores and watched their play, you knew they had absolutely no defense and had to hope they scored 90 plus points every game. However, they got placed in a very easy bracket. If you thought they were a great team the whole year, then I don’t know what to say. They were far from great. Both Auburn and UAT beat up on the bad teams and struggled with any team with a pulse for the most part for a reason. And that’s my whole point. Perception is not reality. There really were no differences between UAT and Auburn throughout the year besides Auburn choking in the first round and UAT having the easiest path ever to the Final 4. If you can’t agree with that then I don’t know what else to say.

Yea, he cannot return back to the NBA draft.

Yea, that’s the most difficult job in sports. As the saying goes, you want to follow the guy who coached after the great coach left.

FYI, on Kelly, he apparently has withdrawn his name from the NBA draft and we should be hearing him signing to us in the next couple of days.

Yea, I don’t know how much of these guys look or watch basketball. It’s become comical right now. No way Purdue, Arizona or UNC in the top 3 seeds. Also, you can guarantee Auburn will have the toughest bracket, I’m more convinced now of that. The good news is that if we advance in the Maui tournament we can play UCONN and see where we stand. I also hope the rumors come to fruition that we play Purdue and Houston out of conference.

Being honest, I think he’s doing an ok job but he won’t be like Coach K, no one really will. I think he’s been put in a difficult situation, just like Hubert Davis. I think they will both get talent because of their name brands but I don’t think they will see the success they have been accustomed to.