Projected starting 5 next year?

[LKEEL75 2,566]

I am 100% behind coach Pearl. Coach Pearl had a very interesting interview yesterday on FB (https://www.facebook.com/AuburnMBB) that to me says a lot. He took responsibility for not getting this team better prepared and for not having more talent around them. He didn't blame it on anyone else. He didn't blame his predecessor. He took responsibility. He also talked about the different mindsets for the different kids and coaches. How he wanted to help some of them reach the NBA and some of them prepare for next season. He also talked about how he didn't really get to recruit last year and how this was going to be his first real recruiting season in a long time.

Bottom line, give the man a break. He is a great coach and we are very lucky to have him. I feel very confident we will have a very nice program in a another year or so. I don't know that we will be "Duke of the SEC" or beating KY every matchup, but I do believe that we could be in the tournament more than not. And that is something that many on this board probably have never even seen.

[AU64 10,122]

I am 100% behind coach Pearl. Coach Pearl had a very interesting interview yesterday on FB (https://www.facebook.com/AuburnMBB) that to me says a lot. He took responsibility for not getting this team better prepared and for not having more talent around them. He didn't blame it on anyone else. He didn't blame his predecessor. He took responsibility. He also talked about the different mindsets for the different kids and coaches. How he wanted to help some of them reach the NBA and some of them prepare for next season. He also talked about how he didn't really get to recruit last year and how this was going to be his first real recruiting season in a long time.

Bottom line, give the man a break. He is a great coach and we are very lucky to have him. I feel very confident we will have a very nice program in a another year or so. I don't know that we will be "Duke of the SEC" or beating KY every matchup, but I do believe that we could be in the tournament more than not. And that is something that many on this board probably have never even seen.

Looks like BP is the only person who agrees with me....

[AuburnNTexas 7,154]

Golly days so many experts. Did we have some good players this year yes we did a couple played at almost elite levels. Did BP aadjust his system to his players yes. He did not really play a hard pressing full court press, more we will bother you a little on your side of the floor and every now and then press hard. No other team in the SEC had the lack of big men that Auburn had. After Bowers we didn't have any rebounding on the team. Mason and Harrel played great and will be sorely missed next year. We will be stronger up front next year and we should have improved PG play next year but loosing 2/3 of your scoring offense and replacing with good solid incoming freshmen will be tough.

We will be better next year but record may or may not show it but with one more good class and players on the floor with experience under BP's system should allow us to really improve 2 years down the road. After that we have to wait and see.

Very few if any coaches with so little time with team and so little time to recruit could have done much better this year. Think what this team would have been without Bowers and Mason both players BP managed to bring in. Probably would not have won an SEC game so give some credit where credit is do and be patient as no coach at Auburn will ever have 6 or 7 McDonald's All Americans on the team at the same time.

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

Was I the only one who noticed that we were handcuffed by injuries and (personal issues) as well this season? Reed and Thompson didn't play until January, TSD missed games in the middle of the season due to injury, and has been absent during the tailspin at the end of the year. Mason had to deal with the health of his father just as he was hitting his stride. And our only true center at the beginning of the season Atewe was injured and hasn't played at all.

This team has been very competitive for the most part even with all of all the injury problems, not even discussing the problems with the roster in general.

As for the point of this thread, next season, I think we get more overall talent than we loose. The loss of Harrel hurts, but think we will be able to spread his scoring around. The overall increase of size should help with defense and rebounding.

[AUGoo 2,664]

I can't tell you how proud of this team I am.

They hustled every night. Sure, they got whooped some, but it was not because of lack of effort. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them this year and checked the calendar for the next game nightly. Haven't done that in over a decade.

Perhaps you did not see the coaching changes that I saw. But, I saw not much pressing and the O running the clock down and not attacking until the 10-15 second mark. I think this allowed our starters breathing time and is uncharacteristic of a CBP team. Size was such an issue. At times it looked like me playing with my 4th grader and his friends. Our players would have position and still be unable to get the ball.

I believe it's coming. Reed going to put on the weight and get a year of top notch coaching and going to become an inside force. I am not sure why he wasn't red shirted this year since he did not appear to get significant PT. I'm definitely excited about a top 15 recruiting class.

At this point though, optimism is all I got.

Better Days Ahead!

[jwmboom7 0]

Was I the only one who noticed that we were handcuffed by injuries and (personal issues) as well this season? Reed and Thompson didn't play until January, TSD missed games in the middle of the season due to injury, and has been absent during the tailspin at the end of the year. Mason had to deal with the health of his father just as he was hitting his stride. And our only true center at the beginning of the season Atewe was injured and hasn't played at all.

This team has been very competitive for the most part even with all of all the injury problems, not even discussing the problems with the roster in general.

As for the point of this thread, next season, I think we get more overall talent than we loose. The loss of Harrel hurts, but think we will be able to spread his scoring around. The overall increase of size should help with defense and rebounding.

Thankfully...

[mcgufcm 4,107]

We'll miss two guys that we're losing this year. KT and Antoine. That's all. We were are three man team this year, and the third man (Bowers) was playing out of position the entire season. He's not a 5. Not even close, but on this team, he had to fill that role. If we can pair him with a legit Center, Bowers can have an even bigger impact. If he's stuck playing Center, trying to defend guys 5-6 inches taller, and drawing an entire defense's attention on the block, he'll continue to struggle (and so will the team).

KT and Antoine are gifted scorers. KT, in particular, could play for almost any team in the conference (UK being the only possible exception... I don't know how he bumps out of their rotation, Harrison, Booker, and Lyles are pretty solid at the wing rotation and that doesn't include the injured Poythress). Those are the only Seniors that you'll notice being gone next year.

Much love to all the guys that busted their butts for this program and university, but we had a massive dearth of talent. Defenses ignored Ross-Miller (27% from 3 and 37% from the field) and Shamsid-Deen (28% from 3 and 35% from the field), they ignored Canada (15% from 3 and 36% from the field), and they ignored Granger (3 shots per game). Reed and Thompson were complete non-factors. That asks too much of a single post player with no support on the block and two wing players. No PG that really drew a defense's attention, no rim protection on the defensive side of the ball, no elite defender on the wing, and no scoring punch off the bench. What did you really expect from this team and what do you really think we're losing?

The starting five will almost certainly include Canty, and you have to like what you saw from Lang late in the year, especially in terms of just looking for his shot. He's probably going to start next year. The biggest question is whether we're going to find a Center (whether that's Reed or someone else) to allow Bowers to play the 4, and move everyone into a more natural position (with Lang and Granger as 3s, for example). Any time you sign JUCO guys, you expect them to play so I also suspect you'll see Dunans get a crack at starting. So I suppose at this point, I'd say we're looking at Canty, Dunans, Lang, and Bowers with a question mark at Center/Foward.

[NoALtiger 3,867]

^^Good post^^

[mustache eagle 2,406]

I hope Atewe is serviceable as a center while reed is still coming along. My gut tells me reed will be something his junior year if he will stick it out that long and put in the hard work ... May be humbling experience ... Somebody give him Jeremy johnsons cell.

I also would not be surprised if we end up with a transfer center that is eligible to play next year.

Edit: of course our roster woes seem highlighted to me when you consider that walkon 6'-5" Waddell was essentially the back up center at the end of the season ... Let that sink in.

[AuburnNTexas 7,154]

A couple of players in the MSU game just put their hat in for some serious PT next year. Thompson ex-walk on and Waddell a walk on.

[juscAUse 1]

Give Pearl a few years, he will get us there.

It is going to take time. Our BB program has been down for years.

And I disagree, though or record does not reflect it, this team played a lot better than last year. We are simply lacking the talent we need to go up to mid level. Hoping we can get there next year.

We may be playing harder than last year, but we are not playing better. As I pointed out in another thread, we are scoring 3 less ppg and giving up an extra 9-10 ppg. We also have less assists and almost dead last in the country in that dept. most that follow BBall understand that assists are a good stat to examine how a team plays as a team. Somehow we have regressed in that dept which I thought was impossible regardless of how bad the next coach was. BP is a helluva recruiter and if he stays long enough will make us better than we've been in a long long time....however his coaching job this year has left a lot to be desired. We are equally as talented as last year and are playing worse than a team that got the last guy fired. Sugar coat all you want, but coaching should have been better this year. Hopefully BP is knocking off the rust and will show up big time next year. Until then...

I think you're forgetting last season we had CD who was the SEC's leading scorer. PPG is down because KT and Mason are the only one's producing and assists are down due to the fact that when we try to assist the scorer, he misses. THERE'S NOT ENOUGH TALENT. It's not about coaching. What don't you get about that?

I got the same problem with my family and AU friends here. They want to use stats from last years team and compare with this years team. If Denson played with this years team, we have at least 4-5 more wins, IMO, with only that one addition. Because he was that much BETTER than what we have now. Same with Payne. Two completely different teams.

[juscAUse 1]

I tried to address this earlier in the year so we wouldn't have stupid emotional breakdowns. Team isn't talented enough to do what the ones complaining wanted done. Take most of our guys put them on other SEC teams they wouldn't even be on the team or they should be bench warmers

Gotta disagree.....guess I have more faith in the abilities of our players than many AU fans do. Granted they don't seem to be much of a "team" but there is some basic talent on our starting 5 and a couple decent back-ups.

And as for depth, check around and you will find that some teams play maybe 7 or 8 guys at most during a game. People see UK's army of McDonalds AA and think everyone has talent like them....but the players on most SEC teams have resume's that don't look any better than our kids and we have plenty of "experience" starting for AU.

I'm just saying that next year we are going to look back and wish we still had some of these guys.

We don't have a true big man other than Reed who is 50 pounds underweight and arrived to Auburn in late December. Regardless of how good our guards are, if we can't defend on the inside and get rebounds (which we haven't been able to do either) then we are not going to be a good team.

As for your depth argument, BP's system requires depth due to the style of play he likes to have. Some systems/teams can get away with not having as much depth because to the style they play, but BP's pressing, fast pace game requires depth.

This argument implies that BP runs a "system" regardless of who his players are and doesn't adapt his system to players, and instead requires several years of recruiting to make a team win games. If you really believe we stunk this year because we don't have enough depth to run his system, then you are implying he is either incapable of or unwilling to adapting his coaching style to the players he has. If that is the case, he must be a terrible coach....yes we need some more players, but if we are running full court press with no depth then that is horrible coaching. Personally I think we have enough players to do what he wants, he just didn't have enough time with some of them to make them play as a team.

Everything you say makes sense if you take recruiting out of the picture. But in the real recruiting world, kids want to play up and down the court, have highlight dunks on ESPN, and shoot threes. Bruce is not running his offense, but he shows flashes. And he , like all other smart coaches, have a long term plan, IMO. He may not have coached to win 2-3 more games this year, by slowing it up and looking like the last two coaches we had. He wants PLAYERS, and those guys aren't coming to a program that walks the ball up court. As a basketball purist, I have trouble with this philosophy, too. But we've tried the other way for the last decade or so. I'll be patient and let him have a couple of recruiting years. Then I bet we unleash Bruce ball. Full court press and run em in the ground O. I can't wait.

[TexasTiger 12,956]

Current thoughts on this?