NCAA Round 1 - AU vs Yale

[e808 3,028]

2 minutes ago, arktiger1975 said:

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.

The head scratching thing is Auburn came into the game hot. This game was played like they had been off for months. The bottom completely fell out

[Tiger 8,830]

9 hours ago, ScotsAU said:

I’d rather win the conference. You get a trophy for that. You don’t get a trophy for coming in 4th. 

You actually quite literally get a trophy for coming in 4th and winning your region. 

---

Guys, getting to the Sweet 16 is not easy. It should be our goal for what amounts to a GREAT season. We were an experienced PG away from that being our ceiling, we were a very good team that had a very good year. We are hanging a banner. That at a minimum dictates we had a very good season.

That said this one is gonna hurt for a while. And honestly, I'm more hurt for the kids on the team than anything. Gonna miss Broome he really kept our program afloat these last 2 years. Imagine if he got to play with an actual PG who forced defenses to account for them. Jaylin Williams had too good of a season for his career to end like that. I know Tre will be thinking about those FTs for the rest of his life unless he can avenge them in a big moment next year. 

But in March your guards need to be able to take over in big moments. Our back court had ZERO reps doing this during the season - - we had no close games they had to navigate us through. That is huge for a guys development. And CBM being ejected was trash. His type of energy has a place on good teams and was a part of why we had a successful regular season. But you don't eject a kid in a game like that unless they're FIGHTING or something. We have seen guys not been ejected for way worse. 

I have more thoughts I'll probably share later as I try to wrap my head around this tough loss smh

 

 

[e808 3,028]

Aiden became unplayable today. This is why some people were wondering how did he make the all freshman team. Played all of 13 minutes while Tre had to play more minutes than usual. For the life of me still don't understand why Aiden switched to the left hand to make that layup when it was much easier with the right. Hopefully, things get better for the young man . Oh well life goes on and the sun is still going to rise. Enjoy life and be safe 

[Tiger 8,830]

1 minute ago, e808 said:

For the life of me still don't understand why Aiden switched to the left hand to make that layup when it was much easier with the right.

That play was tough to watch. For a kid who struggles at the rim for him to pass on an easy layup to try a more difficult one was a key mistake in a game where each possession really mattered. Major freshman blunder there

[Tiger 8,830]

Also, blaming CBM for the loss is really dumb. Did it hurt us? Absolutely. 

But bottom line is we should still be able to beat Yale a man down. But such is March Madness.... 

[TAYLORKEETON 800]

Waking up the day after 

 

feel even worse. Inexcusable loss & humiliating to fking YALE

[KansasTiger 3,254]

5 hours ago, cbo said:

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. 

Good to see you, too, CBO! The misery of this loss brought me back to the board momentarily. The stupidity of a few of the posters drove me to sign in and post. 

I am by no means saying we need to get rid of BP. Just not bend over backwards to keep him to the point we screw ourselves.

Edited March 23 by KansasTiger

[JDUBB4AU 5,123]

2 hours ago, Tiger said:

Also, blaming CBM for the loss is really dumb. Did it hurt us? Absolutely. 

But bottom line is we should still be able to beat Yale a man down. But such is March Madness.... 

cbm has been a liability for a while and today it bit AU on the ass. He’s 90% of the reason AU lost. He’s a good player,  but has been enabled to act the way he does by the staff. 

[aucom96 1,630]

47 minutes ago, KansasTiger said:

Good to see you, too, CBO! The misery of this loss brought me back to the board momentarily. The stupidity of a few of the posters drove me to sign in and post. 

I am by no means saying we need to get rid of BP. Just not bend over backwards to keep him to the point we screw ourselves.

BP should retire here if he wants to. All this rumor talk about his son having to take his place to keep him here, no. 

Bruce made Auburn a fun place to watch basketball. He got us a Final Four banner. He turned our new and at the time controversial arena into an envied home advantage. In terms of pure basketball, I suspect he's peaked. Without better guard play, I just don't see us making another 2019 type run and Bruce doesn't seem to see it that way. I think NIL is going to ruin college football, but may be workable in college basketball with NBA developmental leagues and the like, so I hope someone can come along and build on what Bruce built to one day truly make Auburn a basketball school. 

[arktiger1975 536]

1 hour ago, KansasTiger said:

Good to see you, too, CBO! The misery of this loss brought me back to the board momentarily. The stupidity of a few of the posters drove me to sign in and post. 

I am by no means saying we need to get rid of BP. Just not bend over backwards to keep him to the point we screw ourselves.

I agree, something is amiss. I'm not saying this is what happened. But I can't help but to wonder if one of these big schools with openings like Louisville are trying to convince Bruce to take their job, and he is seriously considering it. As a result, perhaps our preparation for the game wasn't what it should have been. 

Edited March 23 by arktiger1975

[weagl1 1,789]

It just seems like when they get to the big dance they can’t wait for the first opportunity to sh** the bed.  It doesn’t matter who the opponent is.  When one team can’t make a free throw while the other team can’t wait for the chance to get to the foul line because they know it’s a gimme for them the result it predictable.  Bruce needs to take his next team to a different gym every week to do nothing but shoot free throws.  

[arein0 977]

5 minutes ago, weagl1 said:

It just seems like when they get to the big dance they can’t wait for the first opportunity to sh** the bed.  It doesn’t matter who the opponent is.  When one team can’t make a free throw while the other team can’t wait for the chance to get to the foul line because they know it’s a gimme for them the result it predictable.  Bruce needs to take his next team to a different gym every week to do nothing but shoot free throws.  

Both teams shot around the same free throw percentage. We shot 68.2% from the line while Yale shot 67.7%. 

[arktiger1975 536]

What is so infuriating is that if we played even a good, not great game, we win easily. And there wouldn't have been a damn thing Yale could have done about it.

[AUDynasty 585]

This was a gigantic gut punch. 
I really thought this team was special. Winning the whole thing may be really difficult especially being placed in UConn’s region but any concerns and flaws we’ve had about this team evaporated when they won the SEC tournament. I thought that’s when they finally got things figured out and were peaking at a right time. 
The worst thing about this is all the weaknesses, flaws, and concerns we’ve had about this team really shone through. Almost everything was self-inflicted. The four straight turnovers in our four possessions were a killer, but I’d like to add one crucial defensive lapse by Donaldson in the possession after Denver Jones made a big 3 to push us up 68-58. Their point guard dribbled and took a step back. Donaldson didn’t even attempt to contest him at all. He made that 3 and tides shifted. There are many moments where we just needed one stop to break the game open, and we blew every opportunity to do so. Even with that, we still had a chance to take the lead or tie the game on the charity stripe but you could tell by the demeanor of these players that their composure was rattled by then.

I’m proud of the crew of what they’ve accomplished this season but like any other teams that got surprisingly bounced in the tournament, it’s baffling to me that after 30+ games of playing together they went away from what worked the best for the team. You’d have thought after playing together for so long you start to figure what worked and what didn’t. Last year’s team I didn’t really have a lot of expectations and they folded about the right way against Houston. But this group was supposed to be special. Extremely shocking and deflating. Oh well. War Eagle!

[arktiger1975 536]

21 minutes ago, AUDynasty said:

This was a gigantic gut punch. 
I really thought this team was special. Winning the whole thing may be really difficult especially being placed in UConn’s region but any concerns and flaws we’ve had about this team evaporated when they won the SEC tournament. I thought that’s when they finally got things figured out and were peaking at a right time. 
The worst thing about this is all the weaknesses, flaws, and concerns we’ve had about this team really shone through. Almost everything was self-inflicted. The four straight turnovers in our four possessions were a killer, but I’d like to add one crucial defensive lapse by Donaldson in the possession after Denver Jones made a big 3 to push us up 68-58. Their point guard dribbled and took a step back. Donaldson didn’t even attempt to contest him at all. He made that 3 and tides shifted. There are many moments where we just needed one stop to break the game open, and we blew every opportunity to do so. Even with that, we still had a chance to take the lead or tie the game on the charity stripe but you could tell by the demeanor of these players that their composure was rattled by then.

I’m proud of the crew of what they’ve accomplished this season but like any other teams that got surprisingly bounced in the tournament, it’s baffling to me that after 30+ games of playing together they went away from what worked the best for the team. You’d have thought after playing together for so long you start to figure what worked and what didn’t. Last year’s team I didn’t really have a lot of expectations and they folded about the right way against Houston. But this group was supposed to be special. Extremely shocking and deflating. Oh well. War Eagle!

And I thought the Final Four being in Phoenix was a good omen. Our football team won the title there in 2010. I'm like you, really thought this team was different, something special.

[cole256 17,084]

28 minutes ago, AUDynasty said:

This was a gigantic gut punch. 
I really thought this team was special. Winning the whole thing may be really difficult especially being placed in UConn’s region but any concerns and flaws we’ve had about this team evaporated when they won the SEC tournament. I thought that’s when they finally got things figured out and were peaking at a right time. 
The worst thing about this is all the weaknesses, flaws, and concerns we’ve had about this team really shone through. Almost everything was self-inflicted. The four straight turnovers in our four possessions were a killer, but I’d like to add one crucial defensive lapse by Donaldson in the possession after Denver Jones made a big 3 to push us up 68-58. Their point guard dribbled and took a step back. Donaldson didn’t even attempt to contest him at all. He made that 3 and tides shifted. There are many moments where we just needed one stop to break the game open, and we blew every opportunity to do so. Even with that, we still had a chance to take the lead or tie the game on the charity stripe but you could tell by the demeanor of these players that their composure was rattled by then.

I’m proud of the crew of what they’ve accomplished this season but like any other teams that got surprisingly bounced in the tournament, it’s baffling to me that after 30+ games of playing together they went away from what worked the best for the team. You’d have thought after playing together for so long you start to figure what worked and what didn’t. Last year’s team I didn’t really have a lot of expectations and they folded about the right way against Houston. But this group was supposed to be special. Extremely shocking and deflating. Oh well. War Eagle!

I was trying to talk myself into the team making a run because of one thing that you mentioned, peaking at the right time. So I kept preaching on and on about if we are going to do anything special it will be because of defense. 

I've been telling anyone who would listen that we aren't talented as far as our back court 

I'm not trying to toot my horn but I literally have been like 95% accurate and every year it's I have to argue with people and to me that's crazy. But you can see even now people are posting how much better we are than everybody and it's simply not true. We aren't more Uber talented than anybody else backcourt. There's nobody that actually plays basketball looking at us thinking we can't handle their guards. EVERYBODY that scouted us knew that was our weak link. Knew that was a matchup they could win.

People were afraid of our defense. If Aden would have been something different then maybe but besides him who was really a high rated player? 

But I get it, I'm just a nobody but how many times you have to prove yourself right? I promise when we have a real game changing talent at guard I would say it. But actually I'm cool with not believing me, but it's the anger you are met with....I literally stop posting because why am I arguing after all this time? If you don't think I know what I'm talking about after year in and year out then clearly it's just a personal thing. 

Oh yeah and you need more than one. You need more than one guard. Basketball is like physics you have all this stuff that is supposed to happen..... All super stars and best players, the only thing they do is they make things happen when stuff doesn't work out. Thanks it.

You solve physics problems in theory..... But when you have to take account of friction, heat losses, gravity, all of those things it's harder and it changes answers sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. 

Basketball you draw up plays and all of that and it's supposed to go one way, but stuff happens and it's what you do then. It's the unscripted stuff. We haven't had a guard that could handle that stuff in a very long time. 

I was really hoping our Frontline would hide us from it at least to the sweet 16

 

[japantiger 4,051]

This was 1984 losing in the 1st round to the Richmond Spiders bad.

 

This is a coaching loss.  Too much pissing and moaning about location, etc., and not enough "Yale is the best Ivy League team we will ever play, smart, disciplined , good shooters; we better be ready talk"....it looked like they'd never watched their film.  

[milehighfan 1,240]

3 hours ago, JDUBB4AU said:

cbm has been a liability for a while and today it bit AU on the ass. He’s 90% of the reason AU lost. He’s a good player,  but has been enabled to act the way he does by the staff. 

what got him kicked out of the game  shows shy he has played for so many schools. JMO.

[NoALtiger 3,873]

4 hours ago, TAYLORKEETON said:

Waking up the day after 

 

feel even worse. Inexcusable loss & humiliating to fking YALE

Got outscored 20-8 to close out the game. We totally wilted come crunch time to frickin Yale. Not that I wanna make my myself feel any worse than I already do lol. 

[GTNupe11 2,036]

9 hours ago, arktiger1975 said:

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

Yeah, especially since I'm sure Steven Pearl "had the scout on Yale" 😵‍💫😂. A succession plan to simply keep Bruce around for a couple of years would be gross. Go get a big name and proven winner after he hangs it up. The basketball program will turn into the football program if they do that. I don't think I need to explain what I mean by that either.

[cole256 17,084]

It's sad dude exploded against us too, he had a few good games but he hasn't ever shot that well against anybody else smh 

[aubiefifty 16,897]

I refuse to be down on Bruce. the thing is just about every single time we take the floor we have a chance to win. great coaches can be beat.this is a fact.

[TigerOne 1,152]

1 hour ago, NoALtiger said:

Got outscored 20-8 to close out the game. We totally wilted come crunch time to frickin Yale. Not that I wanna make my myself feel any worse than I already do lol. 

Yep and it will get worse as we hear our rivals advance.

Auburn will probably be the joke of the  tournament. Think any other teams will have a player ejected? 

[ShocksMyBrain 9,368]

9 minutes ago, TigerOne said:

Yep and it will get worse as we hear our rivals advance.

Auburn will probably be the joke of the  tournament. Think any other teams will have a player ejected? 

I’d honestly rather have a loss to Yale than Oakland. No one will care about us after today, but UK’s loss carries more water based on their history. 

[AUDynasty 585]

2 hours ago, cole256 said:

I was trying to talk myself into the team making a run because of one thing that you mentioned, peaking at the right time. So I kept preaching on and on about if we are going to do anything special it will be because of defense. 

I've been telling anyone who would listen that we aren't talented as far as our back court 

I'm not trying to toot my horn but I literally have been like 95% accurate and every year it's I have to argue with people and to me that's crazy. But you can see even now people are posting how much better we are than everybody and it's simply not true. We aren't more Uber talented than anybody else backcourt. There's nobody that actually plays basketball looking at us thinking we can't handle their guards. EVERYBODY that scouted us knew that was our weak link. Knew that was a matchup they could win.

People were afraid of our defense. If Aden would have been something different then maybe but besides him who was really a high rated player? 

But I get it, I'm just a nobody but how many times you have to prove yourself right? I promise when we have a real game changing talent at guard I would say it. But actually I'm cool with not believing me, but it's the anger you are met with....I literally stop posting because why am I arguing after all this time? If you don't think I know what I'm talking about after year in and year out then clearly it's just a personal thing. 

Oh yeah and you need more than one. You need more than one guard. Basketball is like physics you have all this stuff that is supposed to happen..... All super stars and best players, the only thing they do is they make things happen when stuff doesn't work out. Thanks it.

You solve physics problems in theory..... But when you have to take account of friction, heat losses, gravity, all of those things it's harder and it changes answers sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. 

Basketball you draw up plays and all of that and it's supposed to go one way, but stuff happens and it's what you do then. It's the unscripted stuff. We haven't had a guard that could handle that stuff in a very long time. 

I was really hoping our Frontline would hide us from it at least to the sweet 16

 

I agree with your posts. You’ve been beating the drum on this all year. Especially with the recruitment (or the lack of) of Mark Sears, and how strong guard play is more paramount than a great stable of big men, especially for the team like 2019 Auburn squad. I just thought that at the very least we’d be in Sweet Sixteen because this team’s just too talented to lose in the first weekend.

If our guards played subpar defensively and made better choices offensively we’d win going away. But it is what it is. The big question is how we start planning for the next season knowing the same issues have plagued us for past few years. Portal or recruitment — just find playmakers at the guard position. Or even an alpha.