Couple this signing with the new Arena and coach Barbee and I have never been this excited about Auburn basketball. I am definitely a little more excited than most people about this signing because I live in Huntsville and I kept up with the Lee vs. Butler rivalry and their chase for the 5A state title. Butler in Huntsville had won the last two 5A state titles before Lee and Langford finally broke through this year. I have met Lee coach Greg Brown and other members of his staff and really thought a lot of them so I was definitely cheering hard for Lee and Langford this year.
As I just posted on another site I think this is Auburn's biggest signing since Doc Robinson but I would compare it more to signing Bryant Smith who was the heart and soul of the 1999 team. To me Langford is more like Smith (another Huntsville product) except with more upside offensively in my opinion. I think the signing of Smith was the first step toward the 1999 dream season and I am sure hoping the signing of Langford will be the first step toward another dream season.
I thought Kevin Scarbinsky wrote the best article on the signing. There are several nuggets of information that can be gleaned from this article. First, how awesome is it that Barbee was at Lee High School to see Langford the morning after his intro presser??? Finally, FINALLY Auburn hires an up-and-coming basketball coach who appears to be a good recruiter. Auburn has never been able to maintain any consistency in recruiting with coaches who were older and on the back side of their career in Sonny Smith, Tommy Joe Eagles and Cliff Ellis. It did not get any better when they hired a younger coach in Lebo whose strengths were not recruiting. Maybe and hopefully Auburn has finally gotten it right.
The results of Barbee putting Langford at the top of his board and putting in that extra effort?
"He could’ve gone and recruited anyone else in the state," Langford said. "He came here first. It was a great feeling when he did that. It made me look at Auburn a little bit harder."
How long has it been since we heard any top recruit in this state say that??? I can help you, it sure hasn't happened in the last decade.
Next we get this info from Coach Brown...
"The Lee coach said Barbee sent a message on his first visit with his actions and his words. "He told me, ‘This kid is a priority. This kid is not getting out of Alabama,' '' Brown said. "Those were his exact words." When’s the last time an Auburn basketball coach said those words, meant them and then backed them up?"
I can answer that for you Kevin, how about never? Auburn fans have waited and waited for a basketball coach to do this. Quality basketball players have streamed out of this state for the last decade and most did not even consider Auburn and many said Auburn did not really recruit them.
We know this is true in this case...
""When Coach Lebo was there, he didn’t recruit me that much," Langford said. "When Coach Barbee came in, he looked at me hard."
I will admit I do not know much about big-time basketball recruiting but this is not the first time that a big-time recruit in this state has said that. I know you have to limit and narrow your scope in recruiting to guys you think you can get but you also have to take a shot at a few of the big boys as well. It does not appear Jeff Lebo was doing that near enough. I have always said we have to build our team from our standard recruiting region. The best example is the 1999 team. Other than Mamadou, all the starters were from Alabama and Georgia.
Langford even showed us our best pitch to keep some of these guys close to home...
"It’s three hours away. In-state. Family can watch me play. Academics. Everything’s right here in the state in Auburn. So I don’t see a reason to go out."
BINGO!!! I am sorry but that pitch does not get old and will always be effective when used correctly. Just about every great player has friend and family that want to watch them play. From my limited experience in youth sports I can tell you that is a fact. Even if we cannot wrestle a DeMarcus Cousins away from the big boys we should be able to get our share of the top ten to twenty players in the state every year with that pitch. I just love it that Barbee came in with the attitude that "this kid is not getting out of Alabama".
To top it off we get the ancillary benefit of a little shot at Bama...
""Alabama? I mean …," Langford said. And then he laughed. "I like Alabama and everything, but they weren’t on me that hard until Barbee came in. It was like Alabama decided to recruit me when Barbee came in, so I said, ‘I’ll just go with Barbee.' ''
To say that Anthony Grant has underwhelmed in his first year as Bama's coach is an understatement. The guy did not make a big splash in recruiting like Barbee did here and was pretty much a flatliner throughout his first season in Tuscaloosa. You can almost tell that Grant longs for his old stomping grounds in Gainesville. Right now it sure appears that Auburn might have made the better hire but time will tell.
Finally, maybe this signing will open the doors in this part of the state for more big players...
"Langford wants to bring others with him, like 6-8 Luke Cothron, a Huntsville native who played last season at a North Carolina prep school. Recruiting insiders say Cothron may be the next Auburn signee. "I think he’s supposed to be coming," Langford said. Then there’s Langford’s cousin, Devin Langford, a 6-6 junior at Lee, who attended Thursday’s signing. "He’ll be even bigger" as a recruit, Brown said, adding that all of the coaches who visited recently offered scholarships to both Langfords. And don’t forget 6-1 Butler High School junior Trevor Lacey, who’s expected to be the No. 1 player in the state next year. "I’m gonna try to get Trevor, too," Josh Langford said. "
Again, as an Auburn fan and a resident of Huntsville I would sure love to see this thing snowball and Auburn get a few more of these kids.
Auburn basketball and optimism... Those are two things that have rarely if ever been linked together. I think it says a LOT that they are right now.
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