St. Louis - Preview

[alexava 6,973]

What time?

[gravejd 3,270]

31 minutes ago, alexava said:

What time?

4 est.... espn2

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

On 12/13/2019 at 12:01 PM, JwgreDeux said:

After another long layoff it's time for some Auburn basketball. Can we wake up from our mid winter slumber or will we sleep walk ourselves through a nightmare on a neutral floor? Really that is the focus of this game. St. Louis has some players and is worthy opponent. There is a lot of talk that this is the best team we have played, and I will tell you they are not. Richmond and New Mexico were for sure better teams, but that doesn't mean we need to sleep on this group. 

St Louis has three guys in particular we need to watch out for. As we have been drooling over Wiley getting a couple double doubles, they have a pair of guys who average them. Junior Jordan Goodwin, a 6-3, 200-pound guard, is producing 15.4 points and 11 rebounds per contest while 6-7, 245 junior forward Hasahn French is contributing 14.9 points and 10.4 rebounds, and Freshman guard Gibson Jimerson, who is 6-5, 200, has won back-to-back A-10 Conference Rookie of the Week honors. French reminds me a bit of Bowers with his size and skill set, except he has a bit better athleticism. 

Match-up-wise: this might be the worst match-up that we have faced. The primary reason I say that is St. Louis is a good rebounding team. To this point we have been about to win the rebounding battle in some close games where we haven't shot the ball well. If we have a bad shooting night and don't have a good rebounding margin we will lose. From that standpoint St. Louis is the most dangerous to us to this point I think. (Maybe that is what CBP means when he says they are the best team we have played).  They are ranked 11th in the nation in total rebounds a game, we are 8th. Where our two teams really begin to differ is how the teams shoot the ball. They shoot it well from deep and we shoot a high percentage from 2. Even though they shoot a good % they don't shoot a lot of volume from 3 and dont play at the pace we do, so don't generally shoot the volume we do from 2 either. While we have the edge in most other areas they are a solid team. One good point of interest is they are not a good free throw shooting team so hopefully our weakness there doesn't hurt us tomorrow afternoon. 

Keys to the game:

• win the battle on the glass
• pressure them into uncomfortable shots
• win the turnover battle (second most important thing to watch)
• match their intensity 
• make some shots early

We are the better team in almost every area, but we can't afford a partial effort. Will be very interested to see how this group responds to the last performance. 

 

Will add more thoughts as they come. 

War Eagle!!!!

Well looking at the preview I think the game played out pretty close to as expected. Goodwin got his double double but French and the rest struggled. They struggled at the line as much as we did (although this will likely hurt us later). They out rebounded us, which was a worry and our poor shooting almost cost us the game. If they hadn't shoot so awful we lose that game. Our defense contributed to their shooting, but sub 40% is bad and 17% from three is just ugly. Surprisingly, some timely 3 point shots and McCormick's play (20 pts, 6 assists, 1 steal and only 1 to) was the difference in this one. Good to see he can be more aggressive when needed to get some buckets. The steal and scramble that he got when they cut the lead in the second half, that ended with a 3 by Okoro was a tone changer. It was an ugly win, but a win none-the-less.  Looking at the keys we didn't do many of them, lost battle on the glass 45-51, didn't pressure them enough until late in the game, we did win the turnover battle 7-12, we came out flat (0-9 run) and we didn't make shots early. 

I don't think we win this kind of game last year. Purifoy, Doughty and Wiley all had sub-par nights. They combined for 18 total points, we don't win many games with that production from them, making only 4 shots from the field!!!! Wiley had 3 turnovers and was only 2-11 from the floor, but he did contribute 8 rebs and 2 blocks. 

I'm still thinking about how much to take away from the last two ugly games with long layoffs, but a few things are clear:

• We can find multiple ways to win with our depth and athleticism. 
• Our free throw shooting will hurt us sooner or later. 
• We have to get more production from are starters, not a concern yet, but something to watch. 
• Okoro came through in some clutch moments again and the team as a whole really digs in an fights. 

 

A win is a win. War Eagle!

[jared52 4,354]

As good as French looked in warmups and how he looked physically, I was VERY impressed with how Wiley and Mac handled him down low. Purifoy did pretty a decent job as well early on, but I don't remember if he covered him late. He was the guy I was worried the most about because it seems AU has always struggled under Bruce vs. good big men. Maybe that trend is turning.

[gravejd 3,270]

I am starting to worry about our offense and if we can produce points against some of the better defensive teams we'll play in the SEC. Hopefully we can start getting a rhythm again and get back to the offensive performances we had against NM, Richmond, and CSUN. We really have 2 basket getters in Doughty and Okoro. Doughty has looked rough the last couple games....way too loose with the ball when driving. He can look so smooth at times and then just as bad at others. I think Jvon can be labeled a basket getter but he needs to do it a bit more consistently. Wiley went back to settling for shots away from the basket in this game....can't let that happen. 

In the end we have been able to win the last 2 games while not playing well. I think that says a lot about our team. It takes a gritty bunch to win when not playing well and this team has done it a few go arounds this season. Hopefully as we move forward we have fewer games where we need to win in spite of our play

[mustache eagle 2,406]

Our offensive trend lately hasn’t been great but this was the bjcc where pretty basketball goes to die ... also the layoffs.

both teams played a fly.  The game last year at bjcc was ugly.  CBP says this was a difficult matchup and we got the W.

please please let’s beat NC state at home.  I hope the locals show up cuz that could be an ugly crowd.  We m considering driving over.  Tickets should be darn near free.  I’ve sat in student section for these games in the past