Auburn vs. South Carolina

[gravejd 3,270]

Time to shake off that heart breaker and get back at it. Auburn plays at USCe tonight at 6:30pm Eastern. Auburn needs this win in a bad way. We currently sit 2-2 in SEC play we have no great wins and no bad losses. I think this will be considered a bad loss at the end of the season were we to lose it. USCe had a terrible OOC record and some terrible losses. They then won their first 4 SEC games before a blow out loss to LSU over the weekend. I predict USCe will be bottom of the league by end of conference play but we'll see on that.

What do they have? Same per usual with Martin the coach. Gritty hard working team that will get after you. Their problem is they have trouble on offense. Silva is still there and can still do it all in terms of defense, rebounding, scoring...etc. This is a team were one guy is not beat you though. Their leading scorer averages 13 a game but they have 9 who average over 5 points a game. 

This game worries me unless we get hot shooting the ball. I think USCe could give us fits inside and get our bigs in foul trouble quickly with their strength and size. This is one of the games where we really miss Wiley. Could have used his size (and fouls) down low in this one. I also have nightmares about another team locking us down and forcing turnovers like NC State did and i'm concerned USCe may be able to do that as well. 

We are fast approaching the part of the season where Auburn needs to start looking like a complete team. We need more scoring options and we need better defense. What we really need is for Okeke to become a guy who we can count on to give us 15-20 pts per game. It was posted last week that Okeke actually has the worst PER on the whole team. After that was posted i looked up the PER formula so that i could understand why Okeke would score so low. Well in short you need a degree in advance mathematics and a minor is statistics to have any hope of understanding that formula. Let just say its a measure of everything a player can do to help their team when they are in the game. I call it a measure of how much and often a player disappears. We can't afford for Okeke to go missing like that. Others need to step up as well but i think Okeke has to be that guy to get our team to the next level. 

 

[BJCrawford 1,568]

We are favored by 8.5. That seems high to me on their court. Any thoughts on this?

[mustache eagle 2,406]

Need someone to go after Silva and put him in foul trouble.  Okeke, Dunbar and DP.

[gravejd 3,270]

49 minutes ago, BJCrawford said:

We are favored by 8.5. That seems high to me on their court. Any thoughts on this?

seems high to me....if one was to just look at record and wins and loses then i could see this type of point spread. Looking at recent results like the last 5 games makes it look much more in USCe's favor. But to be clear if we come out shooting well, they can not score with us point blank end of story. But i really worry that they are going to play this game much like UAB did....go as slow as possible and go inside the whole game. Spencer and Mac better bring it

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

Horace will be big tonight

[AUGoo 2,664]

Why are we in Columbia again?  We played them there last year. Thought they'd be coming our way this year.

[Gene Loblaw 636]

2 minutes ago, AUGoo said:

Why are we in Columbia again?  We played them there last year. Thought they'd be coming our way this year.

Played them both in Columbia and in AU last season. AU clinched the sec title beating them at AU

[AU64 10,122]

Early start on this game.  Another road game we need to win.    USCe conference record is misleading IMO

[ShocksMyBrain 9,366]

I can finally watch a game in real time as opposed to the ESPN gamecast app...which really leaves a lot to desired. Past two weeks I’ve had to work. 

[AUGoo 2,664]

Turning point game?

Win. We stay at .500 pretty easily.

Lose.  Season may start slipping away

[AUGoo 2,664]

51 minutes ago, Gene Loblaw said:

Played them both in Columbia and in AU last season. AU clinched the sec title beating them at AU

Had forgotten that

[Gene Loblaw 636]

Bryce leading the conference with 22ppg in conference play so far. What a stud