Attrition

[thirdlawson 0]

Didn't Barbee bring Forbes in?  I know Chubb, Neysmith, Andre Malone, Ty Armstrong, and Earnest Ross are Lebo guys.  I just don't see Barbee cutting a guy he recruited to AU. 

Forbes was signed before Lebo was fired. Chubb is 6'10" and active, he stays. Neysmith and Forbes are probably gone, Sr to be or not. Malone has already transferred to URI. Ty Armstrong may transfer. Wallace is a walk-on and won't be back, I'm sure. Everyone will be back.

And honestly, a nucleus of Ross, Gabriel, Sullivan, Chubb, Denson, Payne, and Langford can win the SEC West next season. Add in Ward, Johnson, McAfee, Kouassi, Morena, and possibly Trevor Lacey.

Why wouldn't Wallace be back? He isn't on any scholarship so there is no reason for Barbee to get rid of him to make room for someone else. He had scholarship offers at lower level schools but he came to Auburn anyway because it was always his dream to play for Auburn. I feel very confident in saying that I expect Josh Wallace to be back next year.

Because Ward will start and Denson will be a better option as a Soph.....mark it down.

[GoCrazyAuburn 0]

Wallace may be on the practice squad.  But considering we will have Ward, Sullivan, and Denson; Wallace won't really be needed.  With Ward and Sullivan, it will be amazing to have a point guard who can actually shoot the three.

[benjazz 0]

I really like Armstrong.  He looked promising last year and he's trying to come back this year as hard as he can.  We need big guys like him.  I Keep him over Chubb and Forbes.

[marshallcotiger 0]

Wallace may be on the practice squad.  But considering we will have Ward, Sullivan, and Denson; Wallace won't really be needed.  With Ward and Sullivan, it will be amazing to have a point guard who can actually shoot the three.

Maybe but IMO Frankie won't play any point and CJ isn't any better shooting 3's than Wallace. I really don't see CJ as a pg as he doesn't look to dish when he gets into the lane and I think he has a total of about 3 minutes of playing pg this season while games are still competitive. Ward is a true PG and will start but I firmly believe Wallace will be his  top sub next year. While Wallace does struggle with the 3 he does lead the SEC in steals and in the most important category of them all for a PG he is near the top of the league in assist to turnover ratio. He has come a long long way from the player he was when the season started and I have no doubt that he understands his weakness and will be in the gym all summer working on it.

[DANSBY 0]

I like Wallace.  Smart player, aggressive on D, not scared to take the ball to the hole, he is a fairly good free throw shooter, responsible with the ball, can beat the press off the dribble more often than not.  He might not be a prototype PG for D1 basketball, but he has some experience and will be an asset to the team next yr. 

[GoCrazyAuburn 0]

I like Wallace.  Smart player, aggressive on D, not scared to take the ball to the hole, he is a fairly good free throw shooter, responsible with the ball, can beat the press off the dribble more often than not.  He might not be a prototype PG for D1 basketball, but he has some experience and will be an asset to the team next yr. 

i would hardly say 63% is a good free throw shooter, but i guess compared to the rest of the team he is.

marshallcotiger, why don't you see Sullivan playing pg?  he has played that position every year he has been here.

[casatiger 514]

There is always a place on a team for players like Wallace.  There contribution is more behind the scenes vs. on the floor.  Regardless of his minutes he will be on this team.  He is a hard worker and will set the work ethic for the team.  I would imagine he has a ton of respect from the other players as well.  Payne looks like he sulks when things do not go his way.  He made some very poor decisions in the Vandy game and when CTB would get on him he would just sulk.  His attitude seemed to be lacking to me and I see that as a bigger problem than his play.  Chubb should never be the first option inside.  Does not have the game and probably never will.  Forbes is strictly a big body.  It is a shame that Armstrong burned this year of eligibility.  He needed to take the year off.  Earnest Ross seems to bring it night in and night out.  Gabriel has moments of brilliance and then disappears for 10 minutes.  If I were CTB, I would be playing Langford a lot right now.  Next year I would love to see a starting 5 of Ward, Sullivan, Gabriel, Ross, and Langford.  Plug in Forbes/Chubb for Langford when a team has a significant inside presence. 

[DANSBY 0]

Good point GoCrazy...free throw percentages are relative when talking AU basketball. 

casa, I tend to agree with most of what you said, but I am not 100% on Langford just yet.  He looks timid out there at times.  Whereas guys like Ross and even Denson over these past few games play aggressively and try to make things happen. 

[msg6367 1]

Has Noel Johnson officially transferred from Ga. Tech and will he be on the roster for 2011-2012 season?

[GoCrazyAuburn 0]

Has Noel Johnson officially transferred from Ga. Tech and will he be on the roster for 2011-2012 season?

Clemson I believe and yes he has transferred.  I'm pretty sure he will be able to start playing in January.  somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

[DANSBY 0]

Johnson is at AU..if you are on Twitter, you can follow him at @CheeseSon

[marshallcotiger 0]

marshallcotiger, why don't you see Sullivan playing pg?  he has played that position every year he has been here.

I don't remember him ever playing pg.  Q Robinson and D Reed played pg his frehsman year and last year Reed led the league in minutes and Wallace and Neysmith got the time that was left.

[marshallcotiger 0]

Has Noel Johnson officially transferred from Ga. Tech and will he be on the roster for 2011-2012 season?

Clemson I believe and yes he has transferred.  I'm pretty sure he will be able to start playing in January.  somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

You are correct except he will be eligible as soon as Fall Semester is over sometime in Dec..

[NoALtiger 3,867]

The season is officially over. Bring the new guys on. Time to cut the dead weight. Not pleasant, but necessary.

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

The season is officially over. Bring the new guys on. Time to cut the dead weight. Not pleasant, but necessary.

do you approve of other schools in other sports "oversigning" and place kids on medical scholarship and or cutting players?  if not, why would you suggest we cut players from the basketball team?

[AuburnTigers1 0]

That is way different as far as cutting players go. I mean we can keep the ones we have and continue to get our teeth kicked in for the next 3-4 years. I mean if that's what you want fine, but I prefer not to. Scholarships are a contract and done on a year to year basis for a reason.

[NoALtiger 3,867]

The season is officially over. Bring the new guys on. Time to cut the dead weight. Not pleasant, but necessary.

do you approve of other schools in other sports "oversigning" and place kids on medical scholarship and or cutting players?  if not, why would you suggest we cut players from the basketball team?

I'm not suggesting we cut anyone, it is simple mathmatics. We have more players coming in on scholly than will be leaving. Extra schollys won't magically open up. Somebody from this team won't be back next year. How many, I do not know. Barbee himself said earlier this season that the guys were playing for their scholarships. WDE.

[Orange and Blue 17211345162833 0]

Commentary: Despite disappointing season, Barbee offers Auburn basketball hope

My colleague, Seth Emerson, had game story duties today at the SEC tournament. You can read his account here. I wrote a column on the conclusion of Auburn's season instead. Here it is:

(Follow the blog on Twitter and Facebook.)

ATLANTA — There was no comeback, no second-half magic, no late-game rally for the Auburn Tigers on Thursday.

Tony Barbee's first season on the Plains came to a predictable conclusion in a 69-51 SEC tournament loss to Georgia, a much bigger, much better team from top to bottom.

But he didn't dwell on it.

"Can't look back," Barbee said, echoing a season-long sentiment. "We've got to look ahead."

Looking back at the wreckage won't help. The Tigers (11-20) finished with their fewest wins since the 1993-94 season, placing fifth in the SEC West, the fifth time in the last seven years they've been one of the bottom two teams in the division.

But here's where things differ from the Jeff Lebo era. There's hope.

It's a word rarely spoken in Auburn basketball circles. Lebo's teams never made the NCAA tournament, coming close only once while treading water until the life raft of a new arena could push the program to the next level.

Barbee's different. In 20 years as a player or coach, he's missed the postseason only twice. He's been schooled by a noted winner, John Calipari. And in his only previous head coaching gig, he took UTEP from 10th to first place in the Conference USA in four short years.

Why would that pattern change now?

Sure, the numbers are bad this season — historically bad, in fact, if you're talking RPI — but look at what Barbee inherited. The team had no seniors. Its best player missed the season with a knee injury. Its top two recruits failed to qualify academically. Going 0-for-the-SEC was in play.

Still, the Tigers never folded. They scrapped their way to four SEC wins (I'm guessing the over paid off on that one), had a competitive surge late in the season during which no deficit was too large and gave their fan base reason to believe better days are ahead.

"They stayed together as teammates and didn't point, didn't blame," Barbee said. "They knew they had a lot of growing to do because of the inexperience. And I talked about the growing pains from Day 1. And you see how we progressed as a team and got gradually better over the course of the season. And that's what we want to try to do every year."

It won't be an instant fix. Auburn needs size and scoring. The Tigers got mauled on the boards Thursday, allowing 18 offensive rebounds. Their signature offensive play this season was the seven-minute scoring drought.

There's also the matter of making the scholarship numbers work, which will probably require some maneuvering Auburn fans like to think only takes place under Nick Saban's watch.

But it's not as though SEC reclamation projects take a long time. Mark Fox took Georgia from 5-11 in the SEC to the cusp of the NCAA tournament in Year 2. Anthony Grant had a similar turnaround at Alabama, turning a 5-11 SEC team into Western Division champs.

Why can't Auburn, which plays in one of the weakest divisions in Division I basketball and will add injured guard Frankie Sullivan, transfers Varez Ward and Noel Johnson and at least three freshman signees to its current group, make a similar jump?

Barbee refuses to sugarcoat the process — "He doesn’t shoot you no crap," forward Kenny Gabriel said. "He doesn’t tell you what you want to hear." — nor will he slow down to let the stragglers play catchup. Losing isn't in his DNA.

"They've got to commit to improving," Barbee said. "If not, they will get left behind."

Posted by Andy Bitter at 5:09 PM 

Labels: Baseball, Commentary

Read more: http://wareagleextra.blogspot.com/2011/03/commentary-despite-disappointing-season.html#ixzz1GFlIZph1

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

That is way different as far as cutting players go. I mean we can keep the ones we have and continue to get our teeth kicked in for the next 3-4 years. I mean if that's what you want fine, but I prefer not to. Scholarships are a contract and done on a year to year basis for a reason.

It isn't any different, just because it is AU who needs the room rather than some other school.  The math isn't a problem if you don't sign new kids to scholarships that aren't open.  Not renewing a kid's scholarship because he isn't playing at the level you want, is cutting him. 

[blayton23 0]

If we keeo these same guys on scholarship we have now, it will be at least two more seasons like this one, possibly a little better, before it turns around.

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

If we keeo these same guys on scholarship we have now, it will be at least two more seasons like this one, possibly a little better, before it turns around.

I disagree.  I think we can greatly improve with our current players and the addition of a few (which would not put us over our limit).  Even if we have another bad year or two, so be it.  I love Auburn for Auburn, one or two seasons a program doesn't make.  Quality programs are built on solid foundations. 

[guerra aguila 0]

To be honest I have felt like this season has been a tryout for all of these guys. I won't be suprised at all if Chubb, Payne, Neysmith, and Forbes are all gone next year. I am really excited about Ward and Johnson. Next year will be very interesting for sure

I have a friend who feels the exact same way.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

Though  we didn't have even a good team, there's no way we should have lost to UAT after being up by 15 at one point on their court.

[augolf1716 21,218]

Though  we didn't have even a good team, there's no way we should have lost to UAT after being up by 15 at one point on their court.

What does that have to do with attretion?

[NoALtiger 3,867]

Though  we didn't have even a good team, there's no way we should have lost to UAT after being up by 15 at one point on their court.