Trouble with current players?

[DANSBY 0]

We need the incoming batch of kids to stay more than a year and perform. 

I want Barbee to do a great job at AU but he and his assistants have to look beyond the basketball court when recruiting kids for this program.    This high attrition rate can not be a good thing for our recruiting and AU's reputation.

If I were a parent of a recruit and AU/Barbee was recruiting my son, I'd have some pretty stiff questions I'd want answered by the AU coaching staff. 

This is strictly my way of thinking as a parent.........  But a coach that lost 7 out of 8 players he signed, and has the FBI on campus investigating point shaving would raise some red flags to me and where I'd want my son spending his college career.

I think this "it must be the coach's fault" mentality is part of the problem...no accountability.  The guys who are no longer with the program are gone because of their own choices, period.  They came to Auburn as ADULTS with a free ride to play a game they love, earn a degree, and leave here as Auburn men with a world of opportunities ahead....they chose poorly.  If I was Barbee, I would turn this around on the parents....Is your son the kind of kid who would be involved in point shaving?  Can I trust your kid to go to class and make the grades?  Can I trust your kid to make responsible decisions off campus and away from basketball?  It's not like CTB encouraged the type of behavior from the former players you mentioned.  And I know none of us are naive enough to think this issue is unique to Auburn.  If anything, we should be glad we are hearing about this stuff...in the not too distant past, alot of this stuff would have been swept under the rug so the good players could stay on the team and we as fans would have no idea. 

I promise you, as much as we hate hearing about this attrition within the basketball program, nobody hates this more than Tony Barbee. 

[AU64 10,122]

If I was Barbee, I would turn this around on the parents....Is your son the kind of kid who would be involved in point shaving?  Can I trust your kid to go to class and make the grades?  Can I trust your kid to make responsible decisions off campus and away from basketball? 

I understand your view but I'm afraid that college athletic recruing does not generally work that way.

1.  Many of these kids do not have parents...maybe a parent ,or a guardian or a mentor or ?? that are handing the recruiting process. 

2.  The coaches are tryng to pursuade them to come to AU, not give the impression that it could actually require some personal discipline on their part, etc.

3.  There are coaches, HS principles, teachers and guidance counselors who can tell the coaches whether the kids exhibit the type traits you mention.  If they don't do this in HS with lots of supervision, when they get to AU living off campus, good luck with them sticking to the straight and narrow.

Perhaps Barbee should take your approach but in reality, his primary effort has been to recruit kids that are also being recruited by lots of other schools.... and the coaches will say NOTHING that would push the kid away from AU.

Just like hiring a new employee, you look at what the person has done in his past since that is the best known indication of what he will do in the future.  IMO, this IS a coaching issue and goes to the process of evaluating and screening kids before they are offered a scholarship. 

[DyeEraTiger 0]

Barbee thus far, has done a very poor job of evaluating our players.  Are they good basketball players?...Yeah.  Are they willing to achieve success off the court?  We need kids who want to become Auburn Men.  Nuff said.  If this is true, Coach Barbee needs to change his recruiting evaluation process very quickly.  IMO he has underachieved.

Sorry for the negative stuff, but this is not the correct process to build the foundation of our basketball program.

Hopefully, he can develop the players we have remaining on our roster.

We had a guy who did this and we ran him off.

How can you evaluate what 18 yr old kids are going to do once they get on a college campus?  Just being realistic here, but the kids we recruit don't care about becoming Auburn Men, that title has no value or meaning to them as 18 yr olds....in all honesty, I didn't fully understand it at 18.  Once they are here for a few years and grow and mature and real life starts inching closer...that's when being an Auburn Man becomes important.  These are just college kids that make stupid college kid decisions...some of them learn more quickly than others and make it 4 yrs...others don't.  I just don't see how this is a Barbee issue.  I love AU and AU basketball, but frankly, we have very little appeal to recruits (no winning tradition, no recent NBA players aside from Daniels, no trips to NCAA tourney, etc...).  I think Barbee is smart to go get the most talented kids he can find, and try to whip them into shape as fast as possible. 

I'm still with Barbee. 

I'm with you Dansby. I think Barbee is doing the very best he can with what he has. We just need to turn the corner. I'm not saying he will or won't but I think he's making progress and it will show sooner or later. It's not easy to build from the ground up, which is essentially what he's doing. Sure, we've had our moment through the years but it's been a long time. The new arena will def help but we've got to get some big wins and a better showing in SEC play.

[keesler 5,924]

We need the incoming batch of kids to stay more than a year and perform. 

I want Barbee to do a great job at AU but he and his assistants have to look beyond the basketball court when recruiting kids for this program.    This high attrition rate can not be a good thing for our recruiting and AU's reputation.

If I were a parent of a recruit and AU/Barbee was recruiting my son, I'd have some pretty stiff questions I'd want answered by the AU coaching staff. 

This is strictly my way of thinking as a parent.........  But a coach that lost 7 out of 8 players he signed, and has the FBI on campus investigating point shaving would raise some red flags to me and where I'd want my son spending his college career.

I think this "it must be the coach's fault" mentality is part of the problem...no accountability.  The guys who are no longer with the program are gone because of their own choices, period.  They came to Auburn as ADULTS with a free ride to play a game they love, earn a degree, and leave here as Auburn men with a world of opportunities ahead....they chose poorly.  If I was Barbee, I would turn this around on the parents....Is your son the kind of kid who would be involved in point shaving?  Can I trust your kid to go to class and make the grades?  Can I trust your kid to make responsible decisions off campus and away from basketball?   It's not like CTB encouraged the type of behavior from the former players you mentioned.  And I know none of us are naive enough to think this issue is unique to Auburn.  If anything, we should be glad we are hearing about this stuff...in the not too distant past, alot of this stuff would have been swept under the rug so the good players could stay on the team and we as fans would have no idea. 

I promise you, as much as we hate hearing about this attrition within the basketball program, nobody hates this more than Tony Barbee. 

If Barbee approaches a kid, his parents,. his coach, his guardian, etc. with statements like that then every other coach in the conference will eat him alive on the recruiting trail. 

You don't turn your program's misfortune around on the parents of potential players buy asking them if their son can be trusted to be a good kid.  The coach is trying tio get the kid to play at AU, not the other way around.  You sell your porgram to the kid because you want him and you need his talent.  I'd be offended if a coach came into my home and asked me if my son could be trusted to do the right thing. 

I know other schools have issues - but I am having a hard time finding another college program that has the FBI investigating point shaving.   

[keesler 5,924]

Barbee thus far, has done a very poor job of evaluating our players.  Are they good basketball players?...Yeah.  Are they willing to achieve success off the court?  We need kids who want to become Auburn Men.  Nuff said.  If this is true, Coach Barbee needs to change his recruiting evaluation process very quickly.  IMO he has underachieved.

Sorry for the negative stuff, but this is not the correct process to build the foundation of our basketball program.

Hopefully, he can develop the players we have remaining on our roster.

We had a guy who did this and we ran him off.

How can you evaluate what 18 yr old kids are going to do once they get on a college campus?  Just being realistic here, but the kids we recruit don't care about becoming Auburn Men, that title has no value or meaning to them as 18 yr olds....in all honesty, I didn't fully understand it at 18.  Once they are here for a few years and grow and mature and real life starts inching closer...that's when being an Auburn Man becomes important.  These are just college kids that make stupid college kid decisions...some of them learn more quickly than others and make it 4 yrs...others don't.  I just don't see how this is a Barbee issue.  I love AU and AU basketball, but frankly, we have very little appeal to recruits (no winning tradition, no recent NBA players aside from Daniels, no trips to NCAA tourney, etc...).  I think Barbee is smart to go get the most talented kids he can find, and try to whip them into shape as fast as possible. 

I'm still with Barbee. 

I'm with you Dansby. I think Barbee is doing the very best he can with what he has. We just need to turn the corner. I'm not saying he will or won't but I think he's making progress and it will show sooner or later. It's not easy to build from the ground up, which is essentially what he's doing. Sure, we've had our moment through the years but it's been a long time. The new arena will def help but we've got to get some big wins and a better showing in SEC play.

It's even harder to build something from the ground up when 90% of what you just built is being torn back down again.  Losing 7 of the 8 players you brought in is not really building anything, as you have nothing to show for your efforts.

[DANSBY 0]

We need the incoming batch of kids to stay more than a year and perform. 

I want Barbee to do a great job at AU but he and his assistants have to look beyond the basketball court when recruiting kids for this program.    This high attrition rate can not be a good thing for our recruiting and AU's reputation.

If I were a parent of a recruit and AU/Barbee was recruiting my son, I'd have some pretty stiff questions I'd want answered by the AU coaching staff. 

This is strictly my way of thinking as a parent.........  But a coach that lost 7 out of 8 players he signed, and has the FBI on campus investigating point shaving would raise some red flags to me and where I'd want my son spending his college career.

I think this "it must be the coach's fault" mentality is part of the problem...no accountability.  The guys who are no longer with the program are gone because of their own choices, period.  They came to Auburn as ADULTS with a free ride to play a game they love, earn a degree, and leave here as Auburn men with a world of opportunities ahead....they chose poorly.  If I was Barbee, I would turn this around on the parents....Is your son the kind of kid who would be involved in point shaving?  Can I trust your kid to go to class and make the grades?  Can I trust your kid to make responsible decisions off campus and away from basketball?   It's not like CTB encouraged the type of behavior from the former players you mentioned.  And I know none of us are naive enough to think this issue is unique to Auburn.  If anything, we should be glad we are hearing about this stuff...in the not too distant past, alot of this stuff would have been swept under the rug so the good players could stay on the team and we as fans would have no idea. 

I promise you, as much as we hate hearing about this attrition within the basketball program, nobody hates this more than Tony Barbee. 

If Barbee approaches a kid, his parents,. his coach, his guardian, etc. with statements like that then every other coach in the conference will eat him alive on the recruiting trail. 

You don't turn your program's misfortune around on the parents of potential players buy asking them if their son can be trusted to be a good kid.  The coach is trying tio get the kid to play at AU, not the other way around.  You sell your porgram to the kid because you want him and you need his talent.  I'd be offended if a coach came into my home and asked me if my son could be trusted to do the right thing. 

I know other schools have issues - but I am having a hard time finding another college program that has the FBI investigating point shaving.   

If memory serves me correct, the FBI is investigating an individual accused of point shaving, not the program that turned him in.  Again, this goes back to accountability.  If I was Barbee and a parent asked me about this, I would tell the truth...a kid made a selfish decision that ended his career, gave his school a black eye, and might end up with him in jail....does this sound like your kid?  I just had to get rid of X amount of players because they could not get their #$!* straight...can I count on your kid keeping his together? 

I see what you are saying about us selling the program to recruits and not vice versa, but I hope our coaches take some pride in the school they represent when they are out recruiting.  I hope they don't crawl into living rooms around the nation on their knees, begging kids to look at AU.  AU's bball program is going through dark times, but it's still AU, it's still the loveliest village, it's the same campus with the same great people who have been going to school there for generations...it's not some garbage school in the some dumpy city with nothing to offer.  We have something to offer as well and need not sell ourselves short. 

I would not be offended if a coach asked if my kid could be trusted to do the right thing...because I am 100% confident in the answer.  I for one would take it as a breath of fresh air if a coach asked me about my kid's character, grades, activity off the court, etc...instead of just focusing on his stats. I would want a coach that would address these issues to me in person and do his best to make sure my kid wasn't going to contribute to the problem. 

[keesler 5,924]

I see your point Dansby, and I can understand where you are coming from.

I'm honestly not sure how Coach Barbee recruits/evaluates the players character, court performance or anything else.  But from an outsiders perspective the point-shaving schandal was a black eye on the program. Then to go on to lose 7 out of 8 players you've brought into the program, just raises some red flags as to Barbee's ability to ferret out kids with character issues/problem kids.  It just looks like everything he's trying to build up from the ground just comes crashing back down for a myriad of reasons that we (fans) will never know.

[DEautiger 0]

Here's the thing with the first recruiting class: Barbee essentially had 2 months to put a class together after getting hired. You just arent gonna get quality players in that amount of time. He swung for the fences and it just didnt work out