We have lost to Bama the last three out of four.

[aubiefifty 16,798]

............times we have played at their house. we need to end this travesty! how do you guys think we will do. lets hear your predictions and thoughts.i have de-jinxed this thread so feel free to share your thoughts.

[WillMunny 1,378]

I'm afraid of this one.  Bama is good and can score in bunches.  It will be loud and Bama will get the calls.  I won't pick against AU, but it will be tough to win at Bama and at Moo State only two days later without a home-cooked meal in between.  But both are Q1 games and represent a big opportunity for us.

Winning both would be an accomplishment.  We will need to shoot very well against Bama to win. 

I predict two very close wins for AU (87-85 against Bama).

[KillenTime 127]

It is a tough call.  Will the game be called fairly - probably not.  Can we shoot it in Coleman?  We had such a bad game shooting at App St I'm still worried about our ability to shoot the ball well on the road.  Will Bruce play our best players more minutes tonight to get the win or are we still playing the long game?  I hope to see less minutes played by CMO, Lior and Chaney leaving more minutes for CBM and Williams.  How fast will Cardwell get into foul trouble?  Can Williams avoid foul trouble and play a big role on the offensive end?  We need Broome to play a physical game with sense of urgency and determination.  He has to go the hole hard and physical. We can't afford to give up layups and easy penetration to them.  For that reason I expect to see a lot of Tre and Denver.  Can Tre and Denver score if we are having trouble scoring in the paint? 

[OfficiatingExpert 126]

Tre Donaldson will have the go ahead shot under a minute to go. This game is a coin flip that we’re going to win. 

[AUtigers2324 42]

I could see us getting a double digit lead early in the second half, but I think Bama’s offensive firepower makes it close at the end. We were up big on them last year with a lesser team and let it slip away. Auburn wins 85-80

[nthemix 89]

Nate is pretty good v. Bruce ... I think it will be a crazy environment & we won't get any calls ... will be a tough one tonight in Tuscaloosa

 

[SuperAUsome09 738]

We will have to play a near perfect game to take this W.

Coleman Coliseum, potential foul disparity, "Top 10" brain, and Nate Oates(Like him as a coach/hate that he's at Bama)

[creed 1,637]

As it turned out this thread was bad mojo. 

[ArgoEagle 1,788]

We blow the Turds out in The Jungle.  Write it down.

[KillenTime 127]

23 hours ago, KillenTime said:

It is a tough call.  Will the game be called fairly - probably not.  Can we shoot it in Coleman?  We had such a bad game shooting at App St I'm still worried about our ability to shoot the ball well on the road.  Will Bruce play our best players more minutes tonight to get the win or are we still playing the long game?  I hope to see less minutes played by CMO, Lior and Chaney leaving more minutes for CBM and Williams.  How fast will Cardwell get into foul trouble?  Can Williams avoid foul trouble and play a big role on the offensive end?  We need Broome to play a physical game with sense of urgency and determination.  He has to go the hole hard and physical. We can't afford to give up layups and easy penetration to them.  For that reason I expect to see a lot of Tre and Denver.  Can Tre and Denver score if we are having trouble scoring in the paint? 

Game wasn't horribly called for a game in Tuscaloosa.  Struggled to shoot just as we did at App St. We didn't have our best players on the court in the last 10 minutes as I had hoped.  Cardwell didn't get into foul trouble, but didn't play his best either.  Williams stayed out of foul troubled but struggled shooting for the first time in a while (positive here was he kept shooting and didn't hang his head and feel sorry for his self).  Broome played great - physical and determined.  We did give up some easy in the lane but not as much as last year.  However, we didn't run them off the 3 point line trying to prevent them from killing us on the drives.  Gave them way too many easy looks from 3.  

In the end we turned the ball over too much in the first half and didn't shoot well.  With the pace of the game there was no reason to play Berman or Moore in the last 10 minutes or the second half in my opinion.   

 

At some point we have to have a better game plan when the opposing team rushes two people at our guards.  Alabama was just as successful last night as Miami was in the NCAA tournament.  Fortunately they did it in spurts and not the whole game.  You would think we would have a game plan prepared for that after showing we had no clue against Miami.  It creates a 4 on 3 behind the double team with one pass.  We have to have a plan and execute it or we will keep losing games where that tactic is deployed against us. 

[WillMunny 1,378]

And as someone mentioned in the game thread, Lior Berman got torched for a quick 5 points in two minutes of play that really hurt us.  When he enters a game, the opposing team runs a play for whoever he is guarding. 

I like him and appreciate his heart, but I don't think his talent level warrants any minutes against good teams in close games.

[gravejd 3,270]

19 minutes ago, WillMunny said:

And as someone mentioned in the game thread, Lior Berman got torched for a quick 5 points in two minutes of play that really hurt us.  When he enters a game, the opposing team runs a play for whoever he is guarding. 

I like him and appreciate his heart, but I don't think his talent level warrants any minutes against good teams in close games.

I was screaming at the TV why is Berman guarding their best player (Sears)!? I like Berman and think he can contribute to this team but you just can't let situations like that happen. Put your guys in situations they will succeed. Don't play a guy just so he can hit some imaginary minute quota. Hope Pearl looks into how that played out and does something to address in future matchups. 

[Viper 3,132]

21 hours ago, gravejd said:

I was screaming at the TV why is Berman guarding their best player (Sears)!?

Because he guarded Flanigan so well. Obviously, Sears is a different animal. Sears was getting screens to switch on every weakest defender. Pearl needed to get The Berminator out stat.

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

Pearl's switching defense. Alot if times Broome was matched up on Sears

[Viper 3,132]

2 hours ago, NWALA Tiger said:

Alot if times Broome was matched up on Sears

Down the stretch yes. Which was exactly Oats’ gameplan last season and it worked then too. Drive his PG on our Center. Pearl has to double Sears in crunch time to get the ball out of his hands. Make somebody else beat you. 

Edited January 26 by Viper

[BizEagle 79]

2 hours ago, Viper said:

Because he guarded Flanigan so well. Obviously, Sears is a different animal. Sears was getting screens to switch on every weakest defender. Pearl needed to get The Berminator out stat.

Yeah, Berman's feet are not fast enough to cover Sears.  Plus Sears's hand/eye coordination is superior.  Berman was able to stay in front of Flannigan because Flan tends to outrun his dribbling, just is not a great ball handler.  Berman has done some good things this year, like improving his rebounding.  Frankly, IMO, it is really hard to sit on the bench as long as he does and then snap into the game and perform at his optimum level.  There has been raves about Berman's performance in scout scrimmages but he's not sitting on the bench for 20 straight minutes.

Do y'all remember a big Auburn guard from many years ago, Stan Pietkiewicz?   He was a lot like Berman but taller.  His leaping ability was terrible but he had incredible hand/eye coordination, could shoot the eyes out from long range and handle the ball.  He played really smart and if you let him get some space he would launch a 3 or make an impossible assist pass before you could blink (before long shots counted 3 pts.).  If Berman could get shots off quicker like Pietkiewicz did, he would be very dangerous.   I played semi-pro ball vs. Pietkiewicz after his Pro career, he was an amazing shooter and ball handler.  

[keeperoftheplains 131]

2 hours ago, Viper said:

Down the stretch yes. Which was exactly Oats’ gameplan last season and it worked then too. Drive his PG on our Center. Pearl has to double Sears in crunch time to get the ball out of his hands. Make somebody else beat you. 

I'm not sure why Bruce doesn't hedge more on the high screens.  The well-coached teams have hurt AU the last few years hedging those high screens.  WG couldn't even get 2 seven footers the ball when he was jumped up on the key. It was so frustrating watch. The turds did the same thing wed night and neither AH or TD were able to get the ball over/under/around that help defender.  If I were an opposing coach I would do it every time down the floor until AU showed they could consistently exploit the hedge.

[BizEagle 79]

1 hour ago, keeperoftheplains said:

I'm not sure why Bruce doesn't hedge more on the high screens.  The well-coached teams have hurt AU the last few years hedging those high screens.  WG couldn't even get 2 seven footers the ball when he was jumped up on the key. It was so frustrating watch. The turds did the same thing wed night and neither AH or TD were able to get the ball over/under/around that help defender.  If I were an opposing coach I would do it every time down the floor until AU showed they could consistently exploit the hedge.

You make a really good observation.   Small-ish guards are vulnerable to that tactic.  However, if we had not gone stone cold on shooting from the outside, we would have won that game.  bammer was vulnerable every time Broome got the ball on the inside but when we weren't getting in there often enough.  Combine that with AU not sinking 3's, Ja-Will missing missing some inside shots and it just wasn't our night.

I took exception to the officials calling Foul #5 on Broome, when he and KD had Sears trapped in the corner.  That trap play was a great call by Pearl.  There was no foul, it was a held ball, a turnover arrow for AU, and it was a 1 point game.  That official didn't have the smarts or the guts to make the right call.  I am guessing the official thought we were going for an intentional foul to stop the clock and called a foul instead of realizing that we executed a trap & a held ball.  Sears was trapped dead at that point with no help, and Broome had both hands on the ball.   No wonder Broome was furious.  It's an incompetent officiating call, when they assume like that.

[Win4AU 4,052]

Based solely on recruiting Bama will continue to give Auburn fits.  This is a “down” year for them and they’ll probably finish top 5 in the SEC if not higher.