Tough Loss

[TigerDad 0]

tough loss-but good coaching to put them in a positon to win at the end--WAR EAGLE--GOT TO MAKE FREE THOWS

[AUdmd07 2]

tough loss-but good coaching to put them in a positon to win at the end--WAR EAGLE--GOT TO MAKE FREE THOWS

Baylor has what we'll have if Lebo can get some solid big men... speed and size. They are a good, talented team that went into a funk midseason. They'll be a tough out in New York.

[WarTiger 3,912]

Good season for our tigers. We got back to the post season after a several years absence. We played well, just didn't quite make enough to get the win. This program definitely took a step in the right direction this season. If we can get a solid big man that can be a force inside, we can further develop into an even better team. Something many may not realize, but, we played the most games EVER in a season at Auburn this year. Good job tigers. We never quit, and never gave up.

[TexasTiger 12,965]

Lebo has to address consistently poor FT shooting if he really wants to turn the corner.

[rtftiger 40]

I am hurting for Vot and Quantez. Tonight was, sadly, sort of fitting. It looked at times like they should have been out of the game, but the team never gave up. We were close but weren't able to take it to the next level.

Next season will be tough early.

[Nay4AU 2]

Good season for the Tigers. I’m sad to see it end. These guys displayed a lot of toughness and intestinal fortitude this year. I was proud of how they got back in the game at the end when it seemed to have been over. I hate it that they will not be going to NYC. Just like the NCAA Tournament, I didn’t want to see them go for me. I was hoping they would go for them. These guys have put a lot into this season and I would have loved to see them rewarded. Well things don’t always happen as you would like and I wish the best for the seniors and their future. As for those returning maybe this can be a building block to get the program headed in a winning direction and back to the big dance.

[buzzurd24 11]

Damn proud of this team and these seniors. War Damn Auburn Basketball.

[AUartlady 19]

Amen! But please learn to shoot free throws next year!!!

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

It truly was a tough loss but Baylor deserved to win, They beat Va. Tech soundly in Blacksburg and us at home tonight. The crowd was incredibly loud especially at the end but Baylor produced in a volatile envirionment when they had too. They are just quicker than we are and won the battle on the boards, though not by much. You can point to the free throws but to me the thing that really killed us was Baylor making so many easy layups, often uncontested. Even though we lost, it was a great game to be at.

[Mikey 16,648]

This was a fun team to watch, and one we can be proud of. They were limited, talent-wise, but played hard and won a bunch of games. We got our money's worth out of this bunch.

I hope Lebo's run of tough luck with injuries and quitters is over. One or two big guys and he should be able to make some real noise.

[cheap seats 40]

I am dissapointed and sad for Barber, Robertson, and Barrett (and Reed). That tip in by Tez after about 4 misses, the turnover on the inbounds play, and the 3's from Rasheem and Tay were incredible. Beard Eaves was as loud as I can ever remember. It was a good turnout and even the old people were on their feet for that final minute. With my 20/20 hindsight it would obviously have been better if Rasheem pump faked and drove to the basket. However, I will give him that 3 opportunity for the win. He has put in 4 tough years and he was trying to put this Auburn team on his back and carry them to New York with a 3 to win it. Tremendous effort from Tez. If he had that confidence all season, then Auburn would have been in the NCAA. I was glad to see him come up big in the last 6 or 7 games of his career.

I am looking forward to next season. I am not looking forward to PChamp coming on this thread and trashing the efforts of Coach Lebo and the team.

Let's concern ourselves with the baseball team at least reaching Hoover this season.

[autigeremt 6,654]

I want to throw up.....this loss took a lot out of me. I'm tired of seeing us come up short when we had two chances to win (once at the FT line), but the reason I'm so sick is how I watched those guys gut it out time and time again and have to feel that loss when they put it all on the line. I know exactly how they feel in a different arena, and without explaining........I feel their pain.

Thank you guys for a great run and some very exciting basketball. We have a good core group who can build off this season.

PChamp can kiss it for right now. Lebo did a hell of a job. I was one who wanted to see him gone earlier in the season. My crow is now ready in the oven.

[JB33 1]

It truly was a tough loss but Baylor deserved to win, They beat Va. Tech soundly in Blacksburg and us at home tonight. The crowd was incredibly loud especially at the end but Baylor produced in a volatile envirionment when they had too. They are just quicker than we are and won the battle on the boards, though not by much. You can point to the free throws but to me the thing that really killed us was Baylor making so many easy layups, often uncontested. Even though we lost, it was a great game to be at.

Agreed. As the ESPN commentators pointed out, Baylor probably had the best (and certainly the quickest) group of guards we saw this season. A strength of this year's team has been its ability to lock up defensively on the perimeter, but, last night, we couldn't consistently contain their guards in man-to-man or in the half-court trap. (There were a few steal opportunities, but the ball always seemed to get tipped out of bounds, back to Baylor.) Credit Baylor's guard play for that. And, even though their big men didn't have HUGE games (Rogers did get a double-double, I believe), they're a big team, and their size advantage was a major factor. Vot wasn't able to get much, if anything, going inside, and we didn't get within a mile of an offensive rebound for most of the game.

Good season. Hopefully, the tournament experience / excitement will give us some momentum for next year, b/c we're going to miss Tez (defensive "stopper," leadership), Rasheem (scoring, offensive boards) and especially Vot (100% of our inside game, such that it was).

[PChamp119 96]

Haha, I don't make one comment like this entire NIT season and someone still feels they have to bring my name up. Pathetic...

I watched this game (missed the first two) and will say this:

1) Pretty impressed with the crowd. I was hoping for a good crowd and it looked good. It'd be nice to have that crowd for an entire season. Just proves, yet again, that it has nothing to do with the arena - winning brings crowds.

2) FT shooting was horrible. But that doesn't need to be stated by myself. But this will likely never change at Auburn. It's a curse or something.

3) Lebo did a good job getting his players to play well the last 14 games of the season. I still don't think it was a great season because a season is the entire season - not the second half of it. A great season would've gotten us to the NCAA. I will not ever retract that statement. I guess if Auburn football during Chizik's 5th year started off 0-3 and then went 8-4 (6-2 and lost in Atlanta), it'd be a great season, right? I mean they did finish quite strong.

4) Auburn basketball did accomplish one thing, with myself and with many others (although they won't admit it): Winning late pulled in a lot of fans. I had been keeping track all year, but was definitely more interested when they began winning. There was a lot more hope. This is what sports are intended to do. It doesn't have anything to do with "great kids" or "getting your degree." It's all nonsense. If that was truly the case, there would've been the exact same enthusiasm when this team lost to Ole Miss. Believe it or not - winning is why basically all of the fans started attending the games and getting on message boards and getting Auburn in the press. Thanks to their late run - it was enjoyable. Much better than had Auburn had the exact same record winning at various times of the year. Hopefully they can continue this run next year.

[mcgufcm 4,107]

PC, you have to actually like the team to be called a fan. So this team, while pulling in a number of fans, wouldn't count you among them.

As for the team, it was a great year (honestly, if anyone had told you at the start of the year that Auburn was going to be a 1 seed in the NIT, you would have taken that in a heartbeat). My heart broke for Dewayne (and the seniors). Hopefully that will have the same rallying effect for us that it had for Memphis when Darius Washington did the exact same thing to miss the tournament.

[anakintwh 0]

I was at that game, and it took a lot out of me, but if the season was going to end, that's how it was going to end... Free throws...

[Tiger Refuge 6,671]

Well I for one am extremely proud of this team...and not one single poot-n-nanny can make me feel otherwise. I had constructed a very witty retort for a certain "negative-one's" response...but have decided to refrain from feeding the troll.

My definition of a good season is exceding expectations and hurdles to finish the "season" better than your TEAM was expected to. For that, I offer NO apologies.

[PChamp119 96]

I'm not trying to start a fight or anything here, but just out of curiosity, what was your preseason expectations for a 5th year head coach with a senior lead team? Especially after all of last year's complaining of injuries and close losses, I have a hard time believing anyone's expectations are merely "better than last year" because better than last year would be 5 SEC wins. I could understand NIT, but still have a hard time with that seeing that this team should've been NIT bound two years ago, but got passed by.

I guess I am just crazy for thinking this team should've expected to be in the NCAA Tourny and competed for the SEC Western Crown. Tell me the SEC is the worst in probably it's history and I bump that up to SEC Champs (at least Divisional). Call me a bad fan, but I guess I just have higher hopes and higher expectations for Auburn at this point because these are very realistic goals. I guess your expectations are mediocrity or less than that.

But hopefully we can have less fans like me, since I am a bad fan and all, who can continue to hope Auburn's expectations are mediocrity after 5 years of a coach with high hopes. Man, can't wait to see use guys' expectations of Chizik over the next 5 years. I'm guessing... average 8-4? As long as year 4 we go 5-7 under Chizik, 8-4 would look pretty good and you'll be quite proud. Maybe we can lose the bowl game (and other games) with missed PAT's (man, that sounds familiar) or missed FG's.

[AUslug 1]

I'm not trying to start a fight or anything here, but just out of curiosity, what was your preseason expectations for a 5th year head coach with a senior lead team? Especially after all of last year's complaining of injuries and close losses, I have a hard time believing anyone's expectations are merely "better than last year" because better than last year would be 5 SEC wins. I could understand NIT, but still have a hard time with that seeing that this team should've been NIT bound two years ago, but got passed by.

I guess I am just crazy for thinking this team should've expected to be in the NCAA Tourny and competed for the SEC Western Crown. Tell me the SEC is the worst in probably it's history and I bump that up to SEC Champs (at least Divisional). Call me a bad fan, but I guess I just have higher hopes and higher expectations for Auburn at this point because these are very realistic goals. I guess your expectations are mediocrity or less than that.

But hopefully we can have less fans like me, since I am a bad fan and all, who can continue to hope Auburn's expectations are mediocrity after 5 years of a coach with high hopes. Man, can't wait to see use guys' expectations of Chizik over the next 5 years. I'm guessing... average 8-4? As long as year 4 we go 5-7 under Chizik, 8-4 would look pretty good and you'll be quite proud. Maybe we can lose the bowl game (and other games) with missed PAT's (man, that sounds familiar) or missed FG's.

My season expectations were some form of post season play and a winning record in the SEC. I did not forsee the conference having one of its worst collective seasons in recent memory. There is no need to bring up you being a "bad" fan or Chizik or the football team in this thread. You are an attention whore.

[PChamp119 96]

If those were your goals fine - so be it.

But I feel I do need to address my fanhood. It has nothing to do with being an attention whore. If that were the case - why are people calling me out, when I haven't even posted ANYTHING. I go over a week without posting and then my name comes up. I don't think it's me.

Call me a poot-n-nanny or whatnot, but this season was not successful to me because they didn't meet my expectations of an NCAA Tourny bid. They didn't meet my expectations because they lost to teams they shouldn't have. Yes, they had a great run at the end of the season and gave us all a lot to cheer about. I just would've liked to have seen that passion all year long by the team and by the fans. But it was non-existent. That's the difference between me and you guys. You guys can feel all proud of this team. But it is because you had less expectations than I did. And it's not that my expectations are "right" or "should matter to the team" because they shouldn't. But that's why I have sour grapes. You guys enjoy rooting for a program that accomplishes very little and trying to sound upbeat about it. I'll be upbeat when the programs plays as how I think they should because I am the one cheering them. I won't fake crap for anybody. You cheer how you want, I'll cheer how I want. In the end - they did good enough for you and not enough for me. That doesn't make me a bad fan because my expectations aren't absurd. I'm not expecting 30-4 and championships every year. All I ask for is an NCAA bid within 5 years. And yes, in a year like this, compete for the SEC Title. Is that so bad?

Overall, it is not about me. It really isn't. But I feel, and I may be wrong here, but I feel a lot of fans on message boards feel "obligated" to say they are "proud" of a team because of how they will be portrayed. I'm just honest. And I have a feeling that I am not the only one here that was disappointed by this team this year. I just have a feeling I am the only one willing to admit it. Whether that be true or not, I also think the late surge put a lot of people's emotions on the "proud" side as well. I just think that if at the beginning of the season you said this team would go to the NIT, Hell I wouldn't accept that. That's just not good enough for me I guess. It's an improvement, yes, but it didn't take much to improve on what this program has accomplished thus far.

[AUslug 1]

If it isn't about you then why do you feel the need to write 2 or more paragraphs everytime you post? I was disappointed that Auburn lost to Baylor, I was upset when they lost to Mercer but that happens. Teams lose games, they win games I'm just here for the ride and enjoy it as a fan.

[cheap seats 40]

My minimum hopes for the team when the season began were a home NIT game and at least a .500 SEC record. I did expect them to beat Mercer, but as AUslug pointed out teams lose some games they should have won and they move on. I did not know the SEC would have a the type of down year that it did. I moved my expectations up as the season continued and even hoped for a win against Tennessee in Tampa that I hoped would lead to an NCAA bid (by the way PChamp I drove to Tampa for those games, went to Tuscaloosa for the Tuesday night game, and went to every home game except a couple in December when I was out of town).

I remember 1983-1988 when Auburn went to the NCAA Tournament every year, but overall NCCA appearances have been few and far between. This program has to be built up and it has to be done the right way and I think Coach Lebo is doing that. It would help if the core fan base increased like Coach Lebo mentioned in the post game show after the Baylor game.

I never call anybody a "poot-n-nanny."