NCAA Round 1 - AU vs Yale

[thewhiz7 273]

3 minutes ago, cole256 said:

I agree, I was saying if we had Mark the year jabari was here as well. I think we were a PG away that year as well. Just needed someone who would be smart enough to pass the ball and not turnover

Got ya. Well, to that point we could have been looking at 2 deep drives in the tournament.  

You were pounding the drum about Mark years ago. I am not a good evaluator of HS talent but to me he looked good. Surprised we didn't go hard after him at either opportunity. 

[cole256 17,084]

1 minute ago, GTNupe11 said:

Probably mustapha heron. 

At Tennessee he did when he could. If not the guard he'd use a versatile 3. But I can think of him using every type of guard. When he had Chris lofton he was almost on some Steph curry stuff. He had scooter Henderson, he did some real good stuff with JP Prince. He was very tall and lanky. He used Tyler Smith basically as a big guard. 

[GTNupe11 2,038]

2 minutes ago, NWALA Tiger said:

Was he a PG?

Nah, SG. But he hasn't really gone after taller/bigger 2's either. I think he tried having Samir kind of play that bigger PG role the year after 2019 but he was really a true SG. But he likes the short dudes at PG for sure and even SG to an extent. 

[arktiger1975 601]

19 minutes ago, thewhiz7 said:

All this talk about wanting another coach and "getting over the hump"  I know we just lost a tough one. I'm depressed but Bruce is the best thing to happen to Auburn since Dye. 

In the past 7 years Auburn basketball has either won the regular season championship or tournament championship 4 times. You guys can be all high and mighty with your super lofty standards but that is getting over the hump to me.

We were the 6th most likely team to win it all this year by Vegas odds. Outside of KY,  UF has 2 national titles and Arky has 1. So if the hump is to win national titles or get fired we won't be keeping a coach.

I just hope and pray bama doesn't win one before we do.

[cole256 17,084]

2 minutes ago, NWALA Tiger said:

I dont know why exactly but guard play or the lack there of is more magnified in the tourney vs the regular season.

Tourney time defense gets much more intense, you are playing guys outside of your conference with less scouting and less time to prepare, everybody is tight because you know it's one loss and it's a wrap.

Coaches have to really lean and trust on their guards to really be their extension on the court. 

Pace of the game changes, plays breaking down, people have to start scoring off of creating shots much more as opposed to plays getting you open. 

[GTNupe11 2,038]

2 minutes ago, cole256 said:

At Tennessee he did when he could. If not the guard he'd use a versatile 3. But I can think of him using every type of guard. When he had Chris lofton he was almost on some Steph curry stuff. He had scooter Henderson, he did some real good stuff with JP Prince. He was very tall and lanky. He used Tyler Smith basically as a big guard. 

I wonder if he tries to get taller and quicker at those positions or just keeps the status quo. I think the small PG is fine if the guy is a legit threat, like Sears for instance. Harper was the same way. Bryce was on the shorter end also as a 2 guard but dude could shoot the lights out. These combo guards are nice and all but trying to turn them into PGs hasn't exactly worked lately I feel like. 

I wonder how Tahaad will do. He's a legit scoring threat like a Sears I feel like. Thoughts on him?

[cole256 17,084]

Just now, GTNupe11 said:

I wonder if he tries to get taller and quicker at those positions or just keeps the status quo. I think the small PG is fine if the guy is a legit threat, like Sears for instance. Harper was the same way. Bryce was on the shorter end also as a 2 guard but dude could shoot the lights out. These combo guards are nice and all but trying to turn them into PGs hasn't exactly worked lately I feel like. 

I wonder how Tahaad will do. He's a legit scoring threat like a Sears I feel like. Thoughts on him?

I haven't seen too much film on him. I've read good stuff about him. I think you can play shorter guys as long as you have a versatile defensive team around them. I was hoping this team could cover up any guard weaknesses since we had Broome and added CBM and CJ. 

It's going to be interesting the team we are going to put around him. I don't know how him and Aden would pair up. 

[arktiger1975 601]

After watching video of Yale this week, I'm still dumbfounded how we lost to that team. Especially in such an important game.

Edited March 23 by arktiger1975

[cole256 17,084]

4 minutes ago, arktiger1975 said:

After watching video of Yale this week, I'm still dumbfounded how we lost to that team. Especially in such an important game.

We lost like most teams do as far as big upsets that happens every year.

We lost a big part of the team in game (early foul trouble, injury, etc)

We didn't get a big lead so they didn't give up or have a feeling they couldn't win.

They had a player catch fire.

The end of the game we played tight because we were the higher rank so we had turnovers and missed free throws. 

[e808 3,028]

8 minutes ago, arktiger1975 said:

After watching video of Yale this week, I'm still dumbfounded how we lost to that team. Especially in such an important game.

A lot of things change when it’s all on the line.  Unfamiliarity with a team and how u execute is clutch situations is critical. Auburn hasn’t had many pressure situations in which resulted in a win. It’s probably safe to say if u keep the game close u have a chance 

[arktiger1975 601]

2 minutes ago, cole256 said:

We lost like most teams do as far as big upsets that happens every year.

We lost a big part of the team in game (early foul trouble, injury, etc)

We didn't get a big lead so they didn't give up or have a feeling they couldn't win.

They had a player catch fire.

The end of the game we played tight because we were the higher rank so we had turnovers and missed free throws. 

Quite frankly, Yale looked terrible to me vs less than stellar competition in the games I watched. I thought even if worse case scenario happened (and it did), we would still win by 8 or so. 

[AUght2win 6,883]

35 minutes ago, cole256 said:

You don't want to try that here though....I promise you that

Always get a kick out of statements like these. I’ll say literally anything I choose, big fella.

And I choose to say March being “all” about guard play is BS. Would it help? Sure. But we were one of 9 teams statistically eligible to win the title (top 15 offense, top 40 defense - no team has the won tourney in last 22 years without having both). Acting like this team had fundamentally no shot is untrue and gives the coaches a break they don’t deserve.

[e808 3,028]

I am more upset than shocked. Why did Auburn have to be on the wrong side of it. Not shocked because it has happened every year since there has started to become more parity amongst the schools

Edited March 23 by e808

[arktiger1975 601]

2 minutes ago, e808 said:

I am my upset than shocked. Why did Auburn have to be on the wrong side of it. Not shocked because it has happened every year since there has started to become more parity amongst the schools

The players and coaches would never admit it, but I think we probably underestimated them, at least subconsciously. That is one thing that coaches always worry about. You watch a team on film l, and you worry about your guys thinking, "man, these guys suck".

[GTNupe11 2,038]

23 minutes ago, AUght2win said:

Always get a kick out of statements like these. I’ll say literally anything I choose, big fella.

And I choose to say March being “all” about guard play is BS. Would it help? Sure. But we were one of 9 teams statistically eligible to win the title (top 15 offense, top 40 defense - no team has the won tourney in last 22 years without having both). Acting like this team had fundamentally no shot is untrue and gives the coaches a break they don’t deserve.

It's ok to be wrong sometimes.

Also, literally no one said this. We all thought we had a shot but we all knew this whole season PG was our weakest position and could hurt us from making a run. Two things can be true at once. 

[Win4AU 4,055]

Outside of 4, Yale was garbage.  Auburn was worse.  This was one of the hardest Auburn games that I’ve watched.  It was so clear that Auburn was the better team and they’d get up 10 but then there would be a bad pass or a dumb shot that would kill all momentum.  Auburn beat themselves.  

[cbo 7,983]

Heartbreaking loss. The tournament is brutal.

CBM should have known better. All the praise of him being the villian might have been too much for his head. 

We did win the SEC tournament and that's not nothing. I know no one wants to hear that now. 

[AUght2win 6,883]

13 minutes ago, GTNupe11 said:

It's ok to be wrong sometimes.

Also, literally no one said this. We all thought we had a shot but we all knew this whole season PG was our weakest position and could hurt us from making a run. Two things can be true at once. 

Literally YOU said it. “March is all about guard play”. If that was the case we never had a shot. 

Just sounds a lot like the “can’t win without an elite QB” argument. Which is, of course, wholly untrue. Yes - in a perfect world you have elite guards and elite QBs and they improve your odds immensely - but those are hard to find. We could have gone deep with this year’s team as-is. I put it entirely on the coaches (love Bruce but he deserves some flack for consistently losing to lesser talented teams in early rounds).

[AUght2win 6,883]

15 minutes ago, Win4AU said:

Outside of 4, Yale was garbage.  Auburn was worse.  This was one of the hardest Auburn games that I’ve watched.  It was so clear that Auburn was the better team and they’d get up 10 but then there would be a bad pass or a dumb shot that would kill all momentum.  Auburn beat themselves.  

We had 4 consecutive trips down the court that ended in turnovers. Four. That’s hard to do. 

Bruce’s wild-horse, let the kids do whatever they want at all times is freeing to the players, I’m sure, but it drives me crazy and I’ve seen it lose us several ball games. KD literally ran across half-court and forgot the ball. 

[AuburnNTexas 7,199]

I was in church so did not see game but recorded it. We didn't do enough to win. Broome was fouled so many times with no whistles it was rediculous. I can understand CBM getting ejected because he loaded up and delivered. That said the  Yale player he nailed should have had a flagrant one for shot to CMB  when running down court just before CBM retaliated.

We lost because of poor foul shooting down the stretch and some stupid plays down the stretch.

[cbo 7,983]

2 hours ago, KansasTiger said:

We also have to consider BP has limited time left. Everyone assumes he will stay till he's 70 but I'm not so sure. I'm even less sure if we don't agree to some sucession plan for his son, which I think is a terrible idea, and as much as I love BP, don't think that's worth it.

I dont know if it's realistic, but why not go after a Jerome Tang out of KSU, or lure Todd Golden away from Florida. There are plenty of coaches at other similar level schools you may be able to lure with attractive incentives and better leagues and or facilities and resources that can match BP's relevancy.

Good to see you, KT!

I'm still all in on BP. Very appreciative of how he's lifted this program and I hope he's around for a while.

But I sure as hell wouldn't agree to a succession plan for him or anyone else. 

[e808 3,028]

56 minutes ago, arktiger1975 said:

The players and coaches would never admit it, but I think we probably underestimated them, at least subconsciously. That is one thing that coaches always worry about. You watch a team on film l, and you worry about your guys thinking, "man, these guys suck".

If they actually underestimated them after seeing what happened the day prior that’s an epic fail all the way around

[arktiger1975 601]

2 hours ago, KansasTiger said:

We also have to consider BP has limited time left. Everyone assumes he will stay till he's 70 but I'm not so sure. I'm even less sure if we don't agree to some sucession plan for his son, which I think is a terrible idea, and as much as I love BP, don't think that's worth it.

I dont know if it's realistic, but why not go after a Jerome Tang out of KSU, or lure Todd Golden away from Florida. There are plenty of coaches at other similar level schools you may be able to lure with attractive incentives and better leagues and or facilities and resources that can match BP's relevancy.

Well, I think the succession plan notion definitely took a big hit today. 

[e808 3,028]

33 minutes ago, Win4AU said:

Outside of 4, Yale was garbage.  Auburn was worse.  This was one of the hardest Auburn games that I’ve watched.  It was so clear that Auburn was the better team and they’d get up 10 but then there would be a bad pass or a dumb shot that would kill all momentum.  Auburn beat themselves.  

Turnovers have been a thing for Auburn all year when they had a chance to blow the game open.  Not many teams made them pay for it. Auburn won games but these bad habits always existed 

[arktiger1975 601]

Just now, e808 said:

If they actually underestimated them after seeing what happened the day prior that’s an epic fail all the way around

Maybe it affected our preparation all week. We definitely weren't focused, or this would not have happened. If we were prepared the best we could have been and played even a B game, we would have won the game solidly.