Men vs UK Game Thread

[cole256 17,084]

2 hours ago, DAG said:

I am sure I can’t have an opinion on here since I haven’t been posting on the basketball threads for a decade, but if the roster is the problem, and the current coach has 110% have been here for recruiting of thus roster, then he deserves 110% of the blame for the production. Pretty simple. And by saying this does not mean fans are piling on him, hate him, want him fired, etc. I think fans fall in love with personalities and it gets to the point where the lines get blurred big time. This goes for coaches and players. 

I don't understand the logic the people that don't think Bruce should get any criticism are saying.

First of all people thought westry was a nice player but nobody outside of an over zealous Auburn fan had the expectations for westry to be that high. People are talking as if it was a forgone conclusion westry was going to be a one and done player or something....like people on here talk as if he was going to be like Miller for bammer....I expected him to be better than what we had because we can see it's not like we had the best players but he wasn't viewed as a guy that was going to be able and come in and lead a team. 

We still don't know if he is going to be a good PG. The only thing that was being I guess just a foregone conclusion about westry is he can score. That's pretty much the same profile as the guards we have now. We don't know if he can fill the roles of what we need. 

Second some of the things the guys that are saying don't blame anything on Bruce....some of the things they are saying matter of factly now isn't what they were saying last year and coming into this year. Now they are saying our guards talent level isn't high but they were defensive and argued when they were told this last year. When they were told this last year you were a negative Nancy because look at our record, how dare you talk about what you see (bitch) when we were winning games. If they weren't good then we wouldn't be winning. Bring to the guard play inevitably someone would step up and make a joke about you and many of them last year would laugh at you and the joke and not take you seriously. 

I have said this a few times. I said we weren't going to be that good this year because of the talent level. So I said this year this is one of the most impressive coaching jobs Bruce has pulled off. But I also said it's on him that we don't have the talent this year. I actually give him praise and criticism this year. 

The main thing that's crazy is we were literally in this situation not toolong ago when coop was here. There's absolutely no excuse to be back in the same place again this soon. Everybody makes mistakes but to be making the same mistake over again this soon is unacceptable. 

Also another point back in the day that were many arguments would be me talking over and over about how important Wiley was to us and it would aggravate many. Now here we are without his physical presence and the athleticism of a guy like Spencer and a mac.....Now do we see? See how hard these guards are having it? They are basically just settling for 3's now because that spacing ain't the same. It's really no difference than the hb/QB have it without quality o linemen. 

Everybody from the coaches to the players are going to have to own this one and fix it. We knows Bruce can fix it. He's just going to have to pay better attention to the ingredients he picks out when he prepares dinner. Hopefully it's a lesson learned. 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2023 by cole256

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

36 minutes ago, JuscAUse! said:

 

 

 

Technically you are 100 % correct. Every coach has a plan. And he is the head guy.  Injuries , rule changes , players that should have qualified but don't, all can change plans. Question for you. Remember that several players on this team could have gone to any team in the country when they came here. How good would this team be without Bruce Pearl?  If better, you absolutely should be calling for Bruce's head. If not, what else can he do at this point? Basketball is a weird sport. A team that can't shoot 3s goes off for almost 70 percent when it counts in the game. Who would have guessed?

However. Whatever negative anyone says about our rebounding this game will not have any argument from me. 

He didn't address the most glaring need on the roster.  Reports said Mark Sears would have came to AU if offered. I'm not sure your statement of certain players on our roster could have gone to any other school in the country is accurate.  Maybe 1 or 2 , but more than that is a stretch . By no means do I think Bruce should be fired, that's ridiculous at this point

Edited February 26, 2023 by NWALA Tiger

[JuscAUse! 1,449]

7 minutes ago, KansasTiger said:

Just a few points. UK is a team that chooses not to shoot 3s. They have the highest 3pt% in the sec. Today they had open 3 and decided to shoot.

If a coach misevaluates talent, is that not normally on him? You bring up things out of the coaches control in your reply while convienatly leaving out a player just not working out because he wasn't as good as expected, which is what we currently have, whether that the guards we took as transfers two years ago, or Traore, or Westry (jury still out). If a coach misevaluates talent, then practically ignored needs in that position group the following year, he would get blasted.

My point that I guess I'm not articulate enough to make is that we all know we aren't good enough at certain positions to win the tournament. SEC or whatever. I figured that if some people on our team didn't grow up or have the light come on we would be in trouble from the get go. Or maybe the newbies would be super.  So it didn't work. We know this. I understand pointing out the now obvious, but every game? Even some of the ones we win? We have what we have, and that's been true since the start of conference play. That doesn't mean you can't express an opinion either way. It means it's redundant.

[cole256 17,084]

19 minutes ago, e808 said:

The rebounding is the reason why the game got out of hand so fast. KY had so many chances. U can do anything until u secure the rebound. That should have been the top priority. The team is already undersized so there should have been a meeting at the glass.

Yep missing those big, long, athletic guys that we didn't appreciate all the way because they may only score 5 or 6 points. One of my favorite things about that team we had when we made that run was how we physically dominated Kansas and North Carolina. We were pushing them, rebounding everything, blocking everything....we had that depth that didn't let up.....took a mac and okeke out, Wiley and Spencer came in...no let up in defensive intensity

[KansasTiger 3,254]

4 minutes ago, JuscAUse! said:

My point that I guess I'm not articulate enough to make is that we all know we aren't good enough at certain positions to win the tournament. SEC or whatever. I figured that if some people on our team didn't grow up or have the light come on we would be in trouble from the get go. Or maybe the newbies would be super.  So it didn't work. We know this. I understand pointing out the now obvious, but every game? Even some of the ones we win? We have what we have, and that's been true since the start of conference play. That doesn't mean you can't express an opinion either way. It means it's redundant.

With the amount of posters who don't get it, not redundant enough, apparently. 

[CCTAU 3,342]

Recorded the game. Just finished it. Should have skipped it.

We are not a team that can overcome our weaknesses. Especially when the other team just don’t miss. 
Oscar took out Broome and we had zero answer. 
 

Sometimes a team just goes off. UK went OFF on AU today. It doesn’t happen every game. I’m just sorry it was us.

Edited February 26, 2023 by CCTAU

[weagl1 1,789]

I never thought Bruce would put a team on the floor that would get embarrassed that badly.  He might as well start planning for next year because this bunch just doesn’t have it.  

[AURex 2,031]

It was a beatdown I never hoped to see in the BP era. But I'm wondering about the criticism here.

CBP is criticized because we have a midget guard and another starting guard who can't shoot, Traore who has shown us nothing, etc. Trying to replace two first round NBA picks.

I watched the recruiting thread and, frankly, I'm not blasting him. Broome was a great get. But really -----

Yes, this year's team is way below expectations. Not just because of recruiting. Once super talented Flanigan is a liability 90% of the time.

This year sux, and the suckism is just beginning for this team. But I am still confident that CBP can put together very successful teams at Auburn. And as far as the current team, it is what it is -- mediocre.

 

[cole256 17,084]

8 minutes ago, AURex said:

It was a beatdown I never hoped to see in the BP era. But I'm wondering about the criticism here.

CBP is criticized because we have a midget guard and another starting guard who can't shoot, Traore who has shown us nothing, etc. Trying to replace two first round NBA picks.

I watched the recruiting thread and, frankly, I'm not blasting him. Broome was a great get. But really -----

Yes, this year's team is way below expectations. Not just because of recruiting. Once super talented Flanigan is a liability 90% of the time.

This year sux, and the suckism is just beginning for this team. But I am still confident that CBP can put together very successful teams at Auburn. And as far as the current team, it is what it is -- mediocre.

 

I used to say this on the football side a bunch.....as far as expectations, who's? And as far as expectations go is it on Bruce that a team fails expectations when most of the fan base didn't have the right expectations set in the first place? There's no reason that anybody should have been thinking we would be anything above average with the team that we had coming back

[GwillMac6 20,716]

1 hour ago, JuscAUse! said:

My point that I guess I'm not articulate enough to make is that we all know we aren't good enough at certain positions to win the tournament. SEC or whatever. I figured that if some people on our team didn't grow up or have the light come on we would be in trouble from the get go. Or maybe the newbies would be super.  So it didn't work. We know this. I understand pointing out the now obvious, but every game? Even some of the ones we win? We have what we have, and that's been true since the start of conference play. That doesn't mean you can't express an opinion either way. It means it's redundant.

Seriously brother! Like everyone knows and has known about the limitations of this team but it’s like deja vu after every loss. No need to keep on killing these already dead horses over and over! 😂😂 I promise we didn’t forget what They said the first 84 times they said it. This can’t be fixed now. It will have to wait until the transfer portal. 

[Mikey 16,719]

Some decades ago after AU took a beating from Kentucky our coach made the comment that their players were former high school All-Americans and ours were former All-County. Though the talent disparity is not that bad these days, today that's exactly what it looked like.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,728]

4 hours ago, JuscAUse! said:

Not really. I just don't understand how constant bitching helps anything, at anytime. Hated it at work, and I quit two jobs because the folks bitching were 100% correct. But they stayed and I left. Nobody's perfect ever. But he had options last year that did not work out. Is he supposed to go on national TV and apologize to you personally? Go ahead and call me asinine or whatever. I just look at things differently. 

 

There's definitely a middle ground, and one I think we all have to aspire to try to abide by in times like these. You have one bad season, and it shouldn't be the fall of Rome imo. If it's the football program and the consistent failure they've allowed, alright then yea, eternal doom and gloom makes sense. 

 

I've tried to (haven't been perfect) in allowing people who've found some reprieve in this streak of (....) to continue pushing optimism. I think "negativity"/harsher outlooks have been allowed to flow with impunity as of late. There should be some balance - it's just been too much success in a macro sense to not 

[GwillMac6 20,716]

18 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

There's definitely a middle ground, and one I think we all have to aspire to try to abide by in times like these. You have one bad season, and it shouldn't be the fall of Rome imo. If it's the football program and the consistent failure they've allowed, alright then yea, eternal doom and gloom makes sense. 

 

I've tried to (haven't been perfect) in allowing people who've found some reprieve in this streak of (....) to continue pushing optimism. I think "negativity"/harsher outlooks have been allowed to flow with impunity as of late. There should be some balance - it's just been too much success in a macro sense to not 

Lol there you go sounding like some old ass philosophy professor from Pepperdine university!!! Lmao 😂😂 it pains me to admit that was perfectly said though… 

Edited February 26, 2023 by GwillMac6

[e808 3,028]

I know u shouldn’t live in the past but this years short comings might be a little easier to stomach had the ending of last season been different. That team should have been at least in the sweet 16.

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

12 hours ago, PigskinPat said:

So are we saying that Bruce did a great job coaching considering the bad recruiting hand he dealt to himself?

Yep

[Mikey 16,719]

Every year we see a mid-level team or two advance in the tournament because they are a veteran team. This is a veteran Auburn team. I expected us to do better if for no reason other than we have a bunch of older players who have been through the wars. For some reason we're not getting the "veteran benefit".

[tinman1 488]

I have many complaints about this team but this is my #1....We are UNDISCIPLINED.  We are constantly complaining to re refs every time we commit a foul.  KD, Greene, Broome are the main culprits.  When we do make a play these guys flex like Superman instead of getting their butts back to defend. There have been numerous times this year the play is in the other teams court & we're still bitching to the refs.  KD thinks if you make a face to look tough it makes you that way.  I watch a lot of basketball and don't see this type of play from other teams, especially the elite ones.  Sure it happens on occasion but not like our guys do it.   And Cardwell needs to quit being a cheerleader to the crowd and concentrate on improving his game.  Either that or put on a skirt and join the ladies.

Edited February 26, 2023 by tinman1

[NoALtiger 3,873]

10 hours ago, e808 said:

I know u shouldn’t live in the past but this years short comings might be a little easier to stomach had the ending of last season been different. That team should have been at least in the sweet 16.

That’s what makes this season that more frustrating, we have the exact same flaws from last season and the exact same issues that doomed us when we had certain matchups. We had those deficiencies and still had the incredible talents of Jabari and Kess mind you. Take those two out of the equation without addressing said issues, and this is our reality. 

[icanthearyou 4,463]

I think this team had the ability but,,, we had to play a big, physical lineup.  We never even tried that approach.

With the lack of ability to score, we really needed to dominate the paint, particularly rebounding.

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

20 minutes ago, NoALtiger said:

That’s what makes this season that more frustrating, we have the exact same flaws from last season and the exact same issues that doomed us when we had certain matchups. We had those deficiencies and still had the incredible talents of Jabari and Kess mind you. Take those two out of the equation without addressing said issues, and this is our reality. 

Pretty much sums it up

[Tiger 8,830]

Here's the thing. We were stuck with major emergency backup plans at our guard spots because Sharife Cooper left before what was originally planned, Justin Powell who was supposed to be a multi-year player transferred, NIL wasn't a thing yet so Scoot Henderson chose a $1 million deal with the G League over playing for not a million dollars, in that time span we also had 4 star SG Trey Alexander who was commited to us for a while decommit amidst the NCAA BS that was all for nothing if I'm not mistaken. He has been balling at Creighton - 2nd on the team in PPG and a 41% 3 point shooter on the season which is EXACTLY what this team needs.

So all of that hits us and the whole foundation of our backcourt and future backcourt gets ripped out from under us and we scramble and get guys who went to Eastern Kentucky and College of Charleston and ask them to carry the load in the SEC. And Bruce could have pushed them out but maybe he told them he wouldn't recruit over them to get them here in the first place, I mean I'm just speculating but it's not like Bruce has some track record of mis-evaluating talent, particularly guards.

He is definitely loyal to his guys. He was hyping Jaylin Williams the moment the season ended last year. He was loyal to J'Von McCormick and let him have his senior year running the show. But Broome is about as good of a replacement we could have dreamed for to replace the national defensive player of the year. Traore and Westry both have given us very close to zero and we needed them to be key contributors. Mix all that up and here we are. But we have a McDonald's All-American PG coming in with Aden Holloway, and a year after that Philon is coming in so our backcourt should be back to what we expect our of AU guards very soon. 

That being said, we aren't here because Bruce necessarily "mismanaged" the roster we had a bunch of bounces go against us and he had to patchwork this roster. If he pushed those guys out after recruiting them 9 months prior I feel like it may have an adverse effect in recruiting, particularly when his new timeline was in motion - - get stud guard prospects starting next year and beyond.

 

[GTNupe11 2,036]

We need more than just good guards at this point. We need some athletic bigs as well. I like Broome but he isn't all that swift. 

[cole256 17,084]

1 hour ago, GTNupe11 said:

We need more than just good guards at this point. We need some athletic bigs as well. I like Broome but he isn't all that swift. 

Exactly. I haven't even talked about more advanced issues such as not pairing the right prospects together and stuff like that. You don't just go after every guy that's good. Different personnel means different needs. We've put waay too many smaller guys on the team at once. You have to have a guy that creates mismatches elsewhere if you are going to play small guards.....You need agile and uber athletic swing guys to pair with that. 

Also once again Pearl has let himself be caught with guards that's not dynamic waaay too many times now. He has to take blame for that. Pearl also allows too many guards that can't dribble and he let's guards get away without having a not even high but average IQ with passing the ball. We constantly have too many guards that can't create for themselves or others....if you are going to have guys like that they at least need to be tall and athletic so they can offer the athletic versatility that's needed that was mentioned earlier. Even guys that's played here that was successful had these problems. Brown, Powell samir they weren't good at creating....well samir was decent I guess. But we had the same problems when Cooper was here. Eventually just double coop and our entire team would just discombobulate. 

When Powell had to be point as soon as we played sec teams that would push the pace we would get dismantled. Last year we ran into Miami that did that very thing we were destroyed. Half the clock would be gone before we would imitate our offense. End of games we were barely holding on. 

If we are going to have guards like that then we need to have a guy like okeke, jabari, or a guy like Miller that plays for bammer. Actually what happened with jabari is he actually wasn't great handling the ball all over the court and that's why we had to rely on our guards a bit more and why our problem was exploited the way that it was. 

We had problems getting our guards to look to create as opposed to just look to score. The final 4 team had to work on that and learn it as well. All of this has to be evaluated. We need guards for much more than just shooting....But hell we REALLY need that too 😂

 

 

[woodford 3,667]

That was the best Gus impersonation that Bruce has ever done. Not showing up against a household name on the road in prime time. 

[Son of A Tiger 561]

16 hours ago, GwillMac6 said:

Lol there you go sounding like some old ass philosophy professor from Pepperdine university!!! Lmao 😂😂 it pains me to put that was perfectly put though… 

There is one good thing about Pepperdine U. Not only it is a pretty place on a hill with a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean but I got married to my sweet wife there.