Men vs Alabama Game Thread

[PigskinPat 2,581]

11 hours ago, AURex said:

Alright, let's just get off CBP's case, okay? Losing two first round draft picks, rebuilding from the remainders (flailing Flanigan, midget Greene, etc).

What do you want him to do with this cast of characters? He's tried to give the best guys a chance and they've .... ya know ..... best description .... been inconsistent and often outclassed.

Is that the fault of CBP? I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt here. He has some great recruits on the list. If he can actually land them, he will have a solid group to begin working with.

Frankly, I'll be happy to see out two guards leave and Flanigan proceed to the exit door. I thank them loudly for their contributions to Auburn BB, but I'm convinced CBP will rebuild.

 

I agree 100% about certain players heading on and I see what you’re saying to an extent. But Pearl is the one who recruited this cast of characters, so it is his fault to an extent, isn’t it? There’s no way he was blindsided with Jabari and Kessler turning pro, he knew very quickly into last year’s season that they were exactly the players he thought they were going to be and were gone at the end of the season. I love Bruce and I hope he’s at Auburn for years to come, but the problem of losing key players on your team is not a unique problem to Auburn. And a basketball roster is a little easier to rebuild than a football roster, especially with the portal as a tool to do that with. Hopefully for whatever reason or reasons we are where we are, Pearl has learned from it and we won’t have big drop off years moving forward.

Edited February 12, 2023 by PigskinPat

[weagl1 1,789]

This is just a close but no cigar type of team.  They had every chance in the world to win this game but they just don’t have anyone they can go to in the clutch and they don’t have a 3 point shooter.  When you can’t shoot, particularly in the clutch, you are not going to win in this league.  Maybe one of the guards steps up at the end of the season going into the tournaments but it ain’t looking good.  

[tinman1 488]

2 minutes ago, weagl1 said:

This is just a close but no cigar type of team.  They had every chance in the world to win this game but they just don’t have anyone they can go to in the clutch and they don’t have a 3 point shooter.  When you can’t shoot, particularly in the clutch, you are not going to win in this league.  Maybe one of the guards steps up at the end of the season going into the tournaments but it ain’t looking good.  

And this is no different than last year when Jabari was off.  Bruce (or Steven Pearl who has been handed more responsibility in every phase of the basketball operation) has got to find more than 1 player who can score with consistency.  Hopefully we have the problem solved come next year.

[gr82b4au 5,568]

CBP is the best bball coach AU has had and maybe will ever have. Some of you are spoiled. 

[GreenTiger 1,007]

1 hour ago, PigskinPat said:

I agree 100% about certain players heading on and I see what you’re saying to an extent. But Pearl is the one who recruited this cast of characters, so it is his fault to an extent, isn’t it? There’s no way he was blindsided with Jabari and Kessler turning pro, he knew very quickly into last year’s season that they were exactly the players he thought they were going to be and were gone at the end of the season. I love Bruce and I hope he’s at Auburn for years to come, but the problem of losing key players on your team is not a unique problem to Auburn. And a basketball roster is a little easier to rebuild than a football roster, especially with the portal as a tool to do that with. Hopefully for whatever reason or reasons we are where we are, Pearl has learned from it and we won’t have big drop off years moving forward.

In fairness. The big picture favors the job BP  is doing IMO. KD and Greene were a back up plan. Not the top PGs of choice for the class. Westry and Traore have not planned out as hoped. Flan has shown to be a better player in the past but the last two years has regressed in part because of injury. Now should BP processed them??? Tough call on that one. 

[KansasTiger 3,261]

3 hours ago, gr82b4au said:

CBP is the best bball coach AU has had and maybe will ever have. Some of you are spoiled. 

This type of attitude combined with misunderstanding duscussing constructive criticism vs true unhappiness with a coach and program direction, is what can stop a program from becoming elite. We are talking about mistakes BP made and how we can become better in the future. And here you are just upset that we want more.

[ScotsAU 1,343]

Good grief. You just can’t please some folks. I’m guessing it’s folks who don’t remember or were too young to have seen the last coach. No one is accepting mediocrity. We need to bounce back next offseason, and find some shooters. But saying Bruce is a bust of a coach after one season with less than exceptional results is down right ridiculous. 

[Randman5000 4,235]

People can appreciate CBP and still criticize at the same time. He deserves it tbh. Especially if AU only wins 1 more game the rest of the season. (ole miss)

Edited February 12, 2023 by Randman5000

[KansasTiger 3,261]

1 hour ago, ScotsAU said:

Good grief. You just can’t please some folks. I’m guessing it’s folks who don’t remember or were too young to have seen the last coach. No one is accepting mediocrity. We need to bounce back next offseason, and find some shooters. But saying Bruce is a bust of a coach after one season with less than exceptional results is down right ridiculous. 

Besides one poster eluding to having doubts, I can't find anyone posting that BP is a bust. Some of you are just oversensitive about criticism thrown at BP.

[AURex 2,054]

4 hours ago, KansasTiger said:

Besides one poster eluding to having doubts, I can't find anyone posting that BP is a bust. Some of you are just oversensitive about criticism thrown at BP.

Eluding? Perhaps you meant "alluding"? hahahaha And yes, there are multiple posts in this thread and others on AUF saying CBP is to blame for the Auburn losses this year and late last year.

 

 

[KansasTiger 3,261]

2 minutes ago, AURex said:

Eluding? Perhaps you meant "alluding"? hahahaha And yes, there are multiple posts in this thread and others on AUF saying CBP is to blame for the Auburn losses this year and late last year.

 

 

Well he is. And I haven't been saying otherwise. Doesnt mean we are saying he's a bust, but maybe reading comprehension is a challenge for you.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,817]

8 hours ago, AURex said:

Eluding? Perhaps you meant "alluding"? hahahaha And yes, there are multiple posts in this thread and others on AUF saying CBP is to blame for the Auburn losses this year and late last year.

 

 

CBP did have a huge part in Auburn losing to Miami, if we’re talking last year. We had a postgame presser where 3 players + the coach all brought something to the table explaining how Miami’s scheme took them out the game. That loss was coaching and age disparity

Saying your coach got outdone by the opposite coach isn’t solely blaming them  for the loss. It’s just criticism. Saban got outcoached by Gus Malzahn and Hugh Freeze twice. Bruce Pearl outcoached Self and Roy back to back games. That doesn’t make those coaches not legends in the game. They just got outdone, and it’d be blatantly lying to yourself to say otherwise 

[KansasTiger 3,261]

2 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

CBP did have a huge part in Auburn losing to Miami, if we’re talking last year. We had a postgame presser where 3 players + the coach all brought something to the table explaining how Miami’s scheme took them out the game. That loss was coaching and age disparity

Saying your coach got outdone by the opposite coach isn’t solely blaming them  for the loss. It’s just criticism. Saban got outcoached by Gus Malzahn and Hugh Freeze twice. Bruce Pearl outcoached Self and Roy back to back games. That doesn’t make those coaches not legends in the game. They just got outdone, and it’d be blatantly lying to yourself to say otherwise 

This. I would take it one step further to roster building and talent evaluation. I believe BP made mistakes when either evaluating talent or making choices in how to build the roster we currently have. At some point he either had to make the conscious choice that WG, KD, and Zep are better choices than what was out in the Portal to get (simply not true), or he had to make a commitment to not recruit over them to get them to Auburn in the first place, in which case he was stuck with them for 2+ years as our primary non-freshman guards. Either path was a mistake. Admitting that this is a mistake BP made doesn't lessen his coaching ability or what he's done. People, even great legendary coaches, make mistakes.  This was a mistake that unfortunately has plagued the team for 1.5 seasons now. I'm just hoping he corrects it this offseason.

[cole256 17,084]

On 2/11/2023 at 8:19 PM, slyinsocal said:

100% and yes BP has. My only real sore spot was NOT going after Mark Sears. A veteran floor general there for the taking. Was it scholly limits, or was it pinning all their hopes on Donaldson, Westry, and Traore all being good reliable contributors immediately? The class of 2024 tells me this staff will turn the corner. The portal of 2023, hopefully more so.

Trust me if anybody know, I know as far as Mark. There can't be a person on the internet that saw before me this situation, because of me being an Auburn fan and my coincidentally my relationship with his family and us growing up in the same church. 

This game was a great example of things I had been saying and how it's even bigger than you can see with numbers. It was just a couple of weeks ago somebody said well what's the big deal look at the numbers

During this game even when we were up as it became closer to the end you saw how they were confident in their possessions and how we were rushing and seemed out of control.

It was bigger than numbers it was the pace of the game also. And this was actually an off game for him. His dad and sister were in a car accident so I imagine it was hard for him to really focus on the game. We have lacked that for a while. I literally can't wait until we get that back. We needed this last year as well. If we had it last year I think we are a championship team.

I have no idea why....I just smh when I think about what we could have. 

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

12 hours ago, AURex said:

Eluding? Perhaps you meant "alluding"? hahahaha And yes, there are multiple posts in this thread and others on AUF saying CBP is to blame for the Auburn losses this year and late last year.

 

 

Im a huge CBP fan. That being said, while he is working his butt off this season, he has to take some of the blame for our struggles at times. Pretty much all of our struggles follow line up changes. Some of those changes were due to injury (Chris Moore going out and maybe Westry not being 100%), but some of them have just been his calls. Currently, I can't for the life of me understand the Chris Moore Playing the 4 move.  While Yohan wasn't exactly killing it, he is a 4 man. Has the body and size for it and was showing signs of more confidence and improvement. Since Moore has been playing the floor we are getting NOTHING from him. I'm not convinced he's fully healthy but here are his numbers in the last three games combined: 32 mins played, 0-2 shooting, 0-2 threes, 3 rebounds, 0 steals, 1 assist, 1 block, 5 turnovers, 5 fouls. He's too small to defend the 4 and hasn't even attempted a two point shot in three games. We are playing 4-5. I like Chris Moore and he was contributing at the 3, but this current line-up is not it.  Lior has been the back up 3 during this stretch, and I completely understand that, as CBP tries to get some offense on the floor. But he won't shoot the ball. He's getting 10 mins of time and taking 2 shots. If He's not going to shoot, he's not helping us. We have to get out of this small rotation.

 

I knew we would struggle to find the fit this season. I expected a healthy Chance would find a role and the pieces would be coming together right about now. WIthout Chance contributing, we obviously don't have the pieces we expected to have, but CBP still has to keep mixing it up until we find it. 

[gr82b4au 5,568]

Every team needs role players. This team is just full of them.
Zep- starter. good defense. Can’t score and usually has no assists. Biggest disappointment other than the freshmen. What happened to his game? 
CMoore - sometimes starter. hits the boards and plays hard. Can’t score. 
KD - off the bench. plays hard but out of control quite a bit. Lost his outside shot.
Cardwell- good shot blocker who rarely  scores and fouls a lot . 
TD- back up PG who rarely plays.

The walk on- not great at defense and can’t score in big games 

Westry and Treore (sp) - not playing at all. 
stretch - not playing at all (is he even on the team?) 

That leaves you with 4 guys who have to score all of the points:

JWill - acts like a role player, not aggressive enough at times and disappears at end of games 

Broomi- good post player but disappears at end of games 

AF- sometimes starter. Wildly inconsistent with scoring and turnovers 

WG- too aggressive at times, will throw up crazy shots and takes on too much of the burden at the end of games. 
 

Edited February 13, 2023 by gr82b4au

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,817]

7 hours ago, KansasTiger said:

This. I would take it one step further to roster building and talent evaluation. I believe BP made mistakes when either evaluating talent or making choices in how to build the roster we currently have. At some point he either had to make the conscious choice that WG, KD, and Zep are better choices than what was out in the Portal to get (simply not true), or he had to make a commitment to not recruit over them to get them to Auburn in the first place, in which case he was stuck with them for 2+ years as our primary non-freshman guards. Either path was a mistake. Admitting that this is a mistake BP made doesn't lessen his coaching ability or what he's done. People, even great legendary coaches, make mistakes.  This was a mistake that unfortunately has plagued the team for 1.5 seasons now. I'm just hoping he corrects it this offseason.

Well, I am of the opinion he tried to recruit other options (he has mentioned that as being the case at points), but he did not recruit with the idea of affecting the guards’ placement in the rotation. No way of knowing for certain, but it’s reasonable to expect that Bruce looked at this season as being one where he could’ve just built on the core from 2021-22. Unfortunately, there were just misses and a few unlucky breaks from the guys who did get recruited here

I think there’s a distinct difference between not attempting to get other options and actually missing on the other options, and I think it’s more the latter 

[KansasTiger 3,261]

2 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Well, I am of the opinion he tried to recruit other options (he has mentioned that as being the case at points), but he did not recruit with the idea of affecting the guards’ placement in the rotation. No way of knowing for certain, but it’s reasonable to expect that Bruce looked at this season as being one where he could’ve just built on the core from 2021-22. Unfortunately, there were just misses and a few unlucky breaks from the guys who did get recruited here

I think there’s a distinct difference between not attempting to get other options and actually missing on the other options, and I think it’s more the latter 

Chatter I'm hearing is more that he did not really attempt to get any portal guards.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,817]

5 hours ago, JwgreDeux said:

Im a huge CBP fan. That being said, while he is working his butt off this season, he has to take some of the blame for our struggles at times. Pretty much all of our struggles follow line up changes. Some of those changes were due to injury (Chris Moore going out and maybe Westry not being 100%), but some of them have just been his calls. Currently, I can't for the life of me understand the Chris Moore Playing the 4 move.  While Yohan wasn't exactly killing it, he is a 4 man. Has the body and size for it and was showing signs of more confidence and improvement. Since Moore has been playing the floor we are getting NOTHING from him. I'm not convinced he's fully healthy but here are his numbers in the last three games combined: 32 mins played, 0-2 shooting, 0-2 threes, 3 rebounds, 0 steals, 1 assist, 1 block, 5 turnovers, 5 fouls. He's too small to defend the 4 and hasn't even attempted a two point shot in three games. We are playing 4-5. I like Chris Moore and he was contributing at the 3, but this current line-up is not it.  Lior has been the back up 3 during this stretch, and I completely understand that, as CBP tries to get some offense on the floor. But he won't shoot the ball. He's getting 10 mins of time and taking 2 shots. If He's not going to shoot, he's not helping us. We have to get out of this small rotation.

 

I knew we would struggle to find the fit this season. I expected a healthy Chance would find a role and the pieces would be coming together right about now. WIthout Chance contributing, we obviously don't have the pieces we expected to have, but CBP still has to keep mixing it up until we find it. 

That’s one unfortunate constant with CBP: he’s not really an experimental character after those first couple months. Which is a trait many coaches have, but I don’t think there’s many good programs that put as much on our own players’ performance and execution than ours. I think being set with a rigid rotation outside of injury or something calamitous isn’t a good spot…but I will say CBP didn’t have a ton of buttons to press. I would’ve liked to see that WKG-Tre lineup just for offensive purposes, but what do you do in terms of floor general minutes with the second unit? I suppose you can stagger, and KD pretty much does most of the ball handling when he’s in…it’s just not an ideal set up either way 

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

On 2/12/2023 at 2:10 PM, KansasTiger said:

This type of attitude combined with misunderstanding duscussing constructive criticism vs true unhappiness with a coach and program direction, is what can stop a program from becoming elite. We are talking about mistakes BP made and how we can become better in the future. And here you are just upset that we want more.

I agree. If you stop improving you fall behind. How in the world we only have 1 HS signed for next yr is beyond me. 

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

1 hour ago, KansasTiger said:

Chatter I'm hearing is more that he did not really attempt to get any portal guards.

Promises... Promises...

[KansasTiger 3,261]

1 hour ago, NWALA Tiger said:

I agree. If you stop improving you fall behind. How in the world we only have 1 HS signed for next yr is beyond me. 

That kind of blows my mind. Jees. With all the 2024 talk, I forgot about the 2023 class.

[JerryAU 1,694]

On 2/13/2023 at 10:35 AM, cole256 said:

Trust me if anybody know, I know as far as Mark. There can't be a person on the internet that saw before me this situation, because of me being an Auburn fan and my coincidentally my relationship with his family and us growing up in the same church. 

This game was a great example of things I had been saying and how it's even bigger than you can see with numbers. It was just a couple of weeks ago somebody said well what's the big deal look at the numbers

During this game even when we were up as it became closer to the end you saw how they were confident in their possessions and how we were rushing and seemed out of control.

It was bigger than numbers it was the pace of the game also. And this was actually an off game for him. His dad and sister were in a car accident so I imagine it was hard for him to really focus on the game. We have lacked that for a while. I literally can't wait until we get that back. We needed this last year as well. If we had it last year I think we are a championship team.

I have no idea why....I just smh when I think about what we could have. 

Cole, you are the only reason I've paid attention to Mark Sears this season.  I'd have just assumed Oats snagged another jewel like he did with Brandon Miller this year and chalk it up his dumb luck. 

The kid is good and every time flip by to see them play it pisses me off that AU didn't feel the need to pursue him.  

[AURex 2,054]

What a load of crap.

It's not about CBP. It is about team talent. You got a group of guys (and I applaud them all for their effort) -- but the talent just ain't there.

Yes, you can argue that CBP recruited these guys, but the fact is, after losing Jabari and Kessler, the current team just doesn't have the talent.

CBP schemes and tries to put them intio position to score, but they just can't shoot worth a crap.

Other teams know that nobody on the Auburn team is an outside threat, so they collapse inside. They've been doing that since late last season.

Name one BB coach nationally who could take this crop of mediocrity and win consistently in the SEC.

Fact is, Auburn just doesn't have the talent this year. You can blame CBP for that if you want, but there just weren't a lot of Jabari and Kessler guys available to fill the holes. And is CBP to blame if Flanigan still sux or if Westry is a no show or if Zep and JD have both regressed?

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by AURex