Men vs Alabama Game Thread

[steeleagle 2,945]

56 minutes ago, wareagle7298 said:

For Bama to get in to the tourney, I think they would have to win at least 5 out of the last 7 games plus 2 in the SECT.  We made them look much better than they are.

 

I was there, and we didn't make them look better...they are a very good shooting team. They have been doing this for a while this year. Not just against us. 

No, they don't play good defense and they have no inside post presence, so Wiley was able to have a field day on missed shots.

We did a better job of getting the ball to Wiley, and that is with Alabama's quickness too. And I agree with another poster, we shoot too many 3s, and should try to drive more or take better percentage shots. We gave up too many possessions b/c some of our guys tried to shoot 3s and they are very poor at it.

The only gripe I have about Pearl in this game, is allowing McCormick to take the last shot in regulation. Knowing how well Samir can drive, get a foul, or is the better 3 pt shooter, that is who I wish McCormick would have handed it off too and let Samir find the last shot.

[AuburnNTexas 7,149]

3 minutes ago, steeleagle said:

I was there, and we didn't make them look better...they are a very good shooting team. They have been doing this for a while this year. Not just against us. 

No, they don't play good defense and they have no inside post presence, so Wiley was able to have a field day on missed shots.

We did a better job of getting the ball to Wiley, and that is with Alabama's quickness too. And I agree with another poster, we shoot too many 3s, and should try to drive more or take better percentage shots. We gave up too many possessions b/c some of our guys tried to shoot 3s and they are very poor at it.

The only gripe I have about Pearl in this game, is allowing McCormick to take the last shot in regulation. Knowing how well Samir can drive, get a foul, or is the better 3 pt shooter, that is who I wish McCormick would have handed it off too and let Sabir find the last shot.

Actually J'Von started the drive to basket and big man switched with Wiley rolling to basket with a very small guard on him. Two things should have started his initial move 1 or 2 seconds earlier than if bigger man switched which happened dump to Wiley who would have had an easy basket or been fouled or both. 

[AuburnNTexas 7,149]

55 minutes ago, Grumps said:

One crazy thing about the game last night...there were almost NO UAT fans at the game that I saw. I never saw them and never heard them. It was GREAT!!!

We checked their passports at the gate. If they were from Turdland they were on Donald Trump's no admission list.

SARCASM for those who don't recognize it.

 

[boomstick 1,315]

1 hour ago, AUGoo said:

Okoro update?

 

[Zeek 16,650]

1 hour ago, AUGoo said:

Okoro update?

Pulled hamstring from my understanding and will be out for a bit. Nothing structurally wrong I guess.

[fishepa 1,904]

25 minutes ago, boomstick said:

 

excellent!  can't get much better info than that.

[JMassie11 1,610]

I think emotions got the best of the players a few times last night. Instead of playing smart they wanted that final dagger play but just missed on them. Overall shot better but missed the important FT that you have to make down the stretch. Some of the shots Bama put up I still don’t don’t know how they went in but we came out on top in the end.

[Maverick.AU 13,281]

12 hours ago, GwillMac6 said:

SMH. Why does this always happens to us regardless of the sport!?

 

Yep, and every single one was when the player was really starting to dominate and were playing their best basketball. Thankfully Okoro’s isn’t as bad as the others, but damn it is maddening that this keeps happening.

[jared52 4,354]

Did anyone hear anything from Bruce about why the matchup zone? I heard one thing in the postgame where he said they couldn’t play man because they were so much smaller. Not sure I understand that. 
 

Thoughts @JwgreDeux @cole256?

[steeleagle 2,945]

1 hour ago, AuburnNTexas said:

Actually J'Von started the drive to basket and big man switched with Wiley rolling to basket with a very small guard on him. Two things should have started his initial move 1 or 2 seconds earlier than if bigger man switched which happened dump to Wiley who would have had an easy basket or been fouled or both. 

Yeah, I was talking to someone who coaches basketball, and he said WIley was to come up to the top of the key, kinda of like in the LSU game, but he came up too late for J'Von to either move around it, WIley slide down for a pass and dunk or for J'Von to have a path to the basket for a teardrop shot or a layup attempt.

After looking at the replay, JVon had to make a split decision after the switch to get the ball to Wiley, but you are right the better shot would have JVon going to Wiley regardless and hope he got fouled or scored.

The other problem I had, was after Anferee missed both FTs, Cambridge either forgot who he was guarding or lost track of Petty, and you could see him go right then realize he was suppose to be on the other side for Petty. My thinking was it was imperative to try to deny the best shooters the ball, Petty and Shackleford, bc they had to shoot a 3 to tie.

[tgrogan21 6,198]

To anyone who is curious just how out of their minds bama shot the 3 last night. Their next highest game in number of attempted 3 pointers was 39 against Missouri. They have had 13 of 24 games where they shot more than 30 3 pointers. Their next highest game in number of made 3 pointers was 17 against Samford. Second was a 15 point 3 game against Southern Miss.  9 of their 24 games have resulted in under 10 3 pointers made. 18 of their 24 games have resulted in under 12 made. 75% of the time this bama team makes 10+ LESS 3's than they did against us.

On their best shooting effort that they've had ALL year (in terms of makes not percentage) they still couldn't beat an Auburn team that only made 7 3's and shot 22% from behind the arc.

[cole256 17,083]

3 minutes ago, jared52 said:

Did anyone hear anything from Bruce about why the matchup zone? I heard one thing in the postgame where he said they couldn’t play man because they were so much smaller. Not sure I understand that. 
 

Thoughts @JwgreDeux @cole256?

We couldn't stay in front of them so that adjustment made them get out of sync a bit and cause some slight confusion and made them strictly rely on the 3 but now with a hand up. 

Bad thing is teams will definitely make a point to try and exploit us. They'll probably going at us and expose our mismatches. We'll at least will have to slow down a bit with the pressing

[jared52 4,354]

1 minute ago, cole256 said:

We couldn't stay in front of them so that adjustment made them get out of sync a bit and cause some slight confusion and made them strictly rely on the 3 but now with a hand up. 

Bad thing is teams will definitely make a point to try and exploit us. They'll probably going at us and expose our mismatches. We'll at least will have to slow down a bit with the pressing

But wouldn’t forcing them to drive rather than put up threes be better? They would then have to contend with Wiley and Maclemore in the paint. 

[cole256 17,083]

1 minute ago, jared52 said:

But wouldn’t forcing them to drive rather than put up threes be better? They would then have to contend with Wiley and Maclemore in the paint. 

Only person who actually was shooting well was Petty. If they would've attacked the goal more they probably would've won. I'd rather let them take contested 3's. And didn't A Mac foul out? I imagine if they would've attacked the goal more he would've gotten out the game earlier. Or if they get in a bonus situation early maybe they win as well. 

There are only a few players and teams I'd rather them to drive as opposed to shoot outside

[boomstick 1,315]

27 minutes ago, cole256 said:

Only person who actually was shooting well was Petty. If they would've attacked the goal more they probably would've won. I'd rather let them take contested 3's. And didn't A Mac foul out? I imagine if they would've attacked the goal more he would've gotten out the game earlier. Or if they get in a bonus situation early maybe they win as well. 

There are only a few players and teams I'd rather them to drive as opposed to shoot outside

Yeah, I think Mac fouled out pretty early in OT. With him and Okoro gone, I don't think we had much choice. Bama sliced us up last game with us staying in man, and their penetration allowed them to get looks at the rim, draw fouls, and still get good kickout looks from 3. It seemed Bruce made the decisionn that, if they were going to win, they were going to do it with contested shots from 3.

My only gripe about the zone was we kept getting beat in the same two spots in that 1-1-3. Not sure exactly what the adjustment should've or could've been, but it was pretty frustrating watching us give up the same basic looks for the last 10 or so minutes of the game. The other thing that seemed to be an issue was transition defense. Multiple times we gave up uncontested looks from 3 because of miscommunication when getting back on defense. Bama is so quick and really good at spacing the floor in transition, and they cause a lot of problems for everyone. But I thought we made it way too easy for them to get transition 3s instead of forcing them to go around us and get to the rim. 

[Tiger 8,827]

I tell ya what. When Bruce gets the personnel back in the program to run the way he wants to these Iron Ball matchups will be super fun up and down games.

Also, how's Bama's recruiting? I want Nate Oates to fail miserably. IDGAF about a healthy basketball rivalry with Bama. We have bigger fish to fry. Oates inherited some good talent, that backcourt is very talented. Avery did a great job recruiting for them.

[boisnumber1 2,819]

48 minutes ago, boomstick said:

Yeah, I think Mac fouled out pretty early in OT. With him and Okoro gone, I don't think we had much choice. Bama sliced us up last game with us staying in man, and their penetration allowed them to get looks at the rim, draw fouls, and still get good kickout looks from 3. It seemed Bruce made the decisionn that, if they were going to win, they were going to do it with contested shots from 3.

My only gripe about the zone was we kept getting beat in the same two spots in that 1-1-3. Not sure exactly what the adjustment should've or could've been, but it was pretty frustrating watching us give up the same basic looks for the last 10 or so minutes of the game. The other thing that seemed to be an issue was transition defense. Multiple times we gave up uncontested looks from 3 because of miscommunication when getting back on defense. Bama is so quick and really good at spacing the floor in transition, and they cause a lot of problems for everyone. But I thought we made it way too easy for them to get transition 3s instead of forcing them to go around us and get to the rim. 

Yes, our transition D was consistently horrible all game long. Im not sure how many 3s bama made in transition, but it was a lot.

[gr82b4au 5,568]

Simply put both teams were unstoppable. They could not stop us on the inside with the scoring and rebounding. We could not stop them from shooting and making 3s, many of which we’re open. In overtime we just happen to make more shots than they did. 
 

As many on here have noted, the most important thing from this game is the health of IO. 

[Maverick.AU 13,281]

 

[Tiger 8,827]

Doesn't look great.

 

 

Also, great social media marketing for himself by Javon Franklin. He knows everybody is on edge about Okoro's hammy and is on the look out for any and all types of updates. Good stuff, Javon.

[Maverick.AU 13,281]

4 minutes ago, Tiger said:

Doesn't look great.

 

 

Also, great social media marketing for himself by Javon Franklin. He knows everybody is on edge about Okoro's hammy and is on the look out for any and all types of updates. Good stuff, Javon.

I will say that it doesn’t look as bad as we originally feared Bc u know dang well we’d have a golf cart carrying him around if so 😂. We probably should have anyway lol

[Tiger 8,827]

What do you guys think we do as far as rotation goes? When Danjel was out vs LSU we waved off any of the guys who haven't been contributing this year and just buckled down with an 8 man rotation. Do you guys think we stick with that and pull Cambridge or Al Flan to start in his spot? Or do you think we see some Jaylin Williams or Javon Franklin? 

Jaylin has shown some athletic prowess but Bruce doesn't trust him at all it seems.

I like what Bruce said about how usually when we play Bama it feels like a rivalry game but last night it felt like we're trying to fight our way to a championship and Bama was trying to take it away. Bruce has his eye on getting rings and hanging banners he's going to put the best guys out there that he thinks will help us accomplish that. I don't think he believes Jaylin, Turbo, Stretch, or Javon are in those plans for 2020.

[Maverick.AU 13,281]

1 minute ago, Tiger said:

What do you guys think we do as far as rotation goes? When Danjel was out vs LSU we waved off any of the guys who haven't been contributing this year and just buckled down with an 8 man rotation. Do you guys think we stick with that and pull Cambridge or Al Flan to start in his spot? Or do you think we see some Jaylin Williams or Javon Franklin? 

Jaylin has shown some athletic prowess but Bruce doesn't trust him at all it seems.

I like what Bruce said about how usually when we play Bama it feels like a rivalry game but last night it felt like we're trying to fight our way to a championship and Bama was trying to take it away. Bruce has his eye on getting rings and hanging banners he's going to put the best guys out there that he thinks will help us accomplish that. I don't think he believes Jaylin, Turbo, Stretch, or Javon are in those plays for 2020.

I think DC or Al, and similar to what you said, I don’t think has total trust in those other guys yet. 

[Tiger 8,827]

9 minutes ago, Maverick.AU said:

I will say that it doesn’t look as bad as we originally feared Bc u know dang well we’d have a golf cart carrying him around if so 😂. We probably should have anyway lol

IDK the crutch makes it look bad and the limp was pretty significant. He is a freak though so maybe he heals quickly. 

 

HOPEFULLY

[AU Is Gold 410]

8 hours ago, LKEEL75 said:

I dont think they are gonna make the tournament.  They are 13-11 and they have a tough remaining SEC schedule.  It's not brutal but aTm and LSU are likely losses. USC and maybe Mizzo are losses.  Just dont have the record for it this year.  Maybe I'm wrong

You are probably right. I forgot how poor their record is. Still wouldn't past them to win the next 6 out of 7 and win three in the tourney