Is Auburn Basketball Cursed?

I have tried to wait till after this glorious football season to comment on how bad basketball is going on the plains but after seeing this article on CNNSI today I figured I would go ahead.  With out further ado here is the comment on Auburn from the article:
"Auburn is projected to wind up as the worst-ever BCS-league team. According to Jerry Palm, operator of CollegeRPI.com, the Tigers are projected to finish at No. 292. The 2007-08 Oregon State team, at No. 269, holds the current (dis)honor. The worst SEC team ever was 1993-94 Tennessee, at No. 235."

You can look back at my spring post on Auburn basketball and I think I have a good grasp on how bad the program has been.  This season will officially make Auburn the worst program in the conference since the SEC went to divisions in 1992.  Auburn will pass South Carolina for the worst SEC record overall since then.  However I ended the post with these comments:
"Regardless of the reasons now, there is the new Auburn Arena and what appears to be a pretty good coaching hire. Maybe just maybe Auburn basketball can start a new legacy next season. I sure hope so. I also hope the Auburn administration and leadership will now make changes as well and at least give the basketball program decent support from here on out.

Auburn will never be a top basketball school but there is no reason it has to be the worst program in the conference. That is completely unacceptable. I look forward to next season and am actually excited about all aspects of an Auburn basketball team and program for like the first time… ever? "
 
I thought maybe just maybe Auburn could start fresh.  I knew the team would not be good but good night I did not know it would be near this bad.  First, with typical Auburn basketball luck, the team lost the only two returning players with legitimate playing time to knee injuries.  After that the team started out losing to COLUMBUS STATE in an exhibition.  They have followed that up by losing to UNC-Asheville, Samford, CAMPBELL, JACKSONVILLE STATE, and PRESBYTERIAN.  

I was there for opening night in the Auburn Arena against UNC-Asheville.  On a positive note, I love the new arena.  As someone who saw more than their fair share of games in the old Beard Eaves Mausoleum it is a huge improvement.  It is a great place to watch basketball IF we had anything resembling a decent team.  My first comments as the game began was "wow this team is really really bad".  I do not want to disrepect the kids who are working their tails off on this team but facts are facts.   

Obviously Tony Barbee will get a mulligan for this awful season but it will have an effect.  It has effectively destroyed much of the boost Auburn should have gotten from a great new facility.  I also hope Barbee has learned from his early recruiting efforts that if your recruits CANNOT QUALIFY it does not matter how good they are.  Also for the love of basketball, can we please PLEASE recruit somebody who can SHOOT THE BALL.  It is just so frustrating. 

I will end with the same thoughts as I did this spring and will continue to say...  "Auburn will never be a top basketball school but there is no reason it has to be the worst program in the conference."

Cam Newton wins the Heisman

You are looking at three fourths of the "Mount Rushmore" now of Auburn football players.  I think Tracy Rocker would be the last face but there is no doubt that these three men are there.  Also like in the picture Cam Newton might stand tallest.  My game one review was titled "A Star is Born" and certainly one was born that day but I had no idea he would become Auburn's third Heisman Trophy winner.  He certainly deserved it as he was the best player in the nation by far this season and has also cemented himself as one of the greatest players in college football history.  He became the only player in SEC history to throw for over 2000 yards and rush for over a thousand yards.  He became the leading rushing quarterback in SEC history but won his toughest games of the year by his passing.  He matched Tim Tebow's unbelievable feat of scoring 20 touchdowns both running and passing.  Finally, he has led his team to an undefeated season and an SEC championship.  We will never see another player like Cam Newton again.

Like Cam I have to give a lot of credit to his almost all senior incredible offensive line.  He would still be a great player behind a lesser line but nowhere near this good.  I also have to give a lot of credit to coach Gus Malzahn who has helped Cam reach his full potential and brought him along almost perfectly.  It is one of the greatest offensive coaching jobs I have ever seen.  Credit also has to go to a superb support cast of very talented players like Darvin Adams, Ontario McCalebb, Terrell Zachary, Mike Dyer, etc...  I still do not think I would say this is the best team in Auburn history but I will say this is the best offense in Auburn history led by maybe the greatest player in Auburn history.

I cannot say anyone is more talented than Bo Jackson but I will agree with Coach Dye who said as a quarterback Cam can influence the game more than Bo.  Each Heisman winner has an incredible story.  As I have said many times, I think everyone should real David Housel's book "Saturdays to Remember" and especially the Pat Sullivan games.  You would then get a true feel for how great a player Sullivan was.  Auburn was down-and-out for most of the decade of the 1960s.  Sullivan brought them back and led the first truly great Auburn passing offense.  Sullivan rallied the Auburn freshmen team from down 27-0 to Bama and became the last quarterback to lead Auburn to a win by more than 10 points over Bama, crushing them and Bear Bryant 49-26 in 1969.  Again, Auburn has not beaten Bama by more than 10 points since.  Sullivan only lost five regular season games in three years.  He also brought Auburn back from 17-0 to Bama in 1970 and beat Archie Manning in the famous "Battle of the Quarterbacks" in the Gator Bowl that year.  Finally in 1971 Sullivan led Auburn to an undefeated season coming into the Bama game and a win over a top five undefeated Georgia team to clinch the Heisman Trophy.  Unfortunately the wishbone offense at Bama and Oklahoma ended his career on a sour note.

Bo Jackson was the player that put it all together for Pat Dye as he built the foundation for the current Auburn football program.  Bo helped topple Bama and their ten year streak over Auburn.  He helped lead Auburn to their first SEC title since 1957 and basically the national title as well in 1983.  He then fought through injuries and adversity and kept Auburn at a high level and won the Heisman Trophy in 1985.  His career like Sullivan's also ended on a sour note after clinching the Heisman Trophy against Georgia.

Cam Newton while he has not put the time in the program that Sullivan and Jackson did has so far avoided that sour ending note that Sullivan and Jackson endured.  Let us hope he can continue that one more game.  However the whole ordeal with his father may have been one of the toughest things any Auburn player has ever endured.  There are violent horrible men who are not reviled like Cecil Newton.  The guy made a big mistake but did he deserve this?  Anybody who loves sports and has a son that plays sports at a high level will understand the punishment Cecil paid to not see his son accept the Heisman Trophy.  I thought the whole ESPN broadcast was bush league and a player from the "sacred cow" schools would not have been treated like Cam was.  For goodness sake, Mark Ingram committed NCAA violations and actually received illegal benefits (unlike Cam or his dad) and his father is a felon sitting in jail yet he was not treated anything like Cam has been treated.  The media is the most hypocritical two-faced self-righteous institution in the world.  For the record, one more time for the mediots who simply cannot get this through their heads...  Cam Newton and his dad have been THOROUGHLY INVESTIGATED and they did not receive ANY EXTRA BENEFITS.  That is the difference between Cam Newton and pretty much every NCAA case he is being compared to.  TALKING about extra benefits and actually GETTING extra benefits are two different things. 

Cam's speech was termed by most as "awkward" but with all that he has been through and the pressure he was under I think he did fine.  It was not as inspirational as Bo's or as eloquent as Sullivan's but I think it was just as sincere.  I will never forget Cam Newton.  I am very thankful I was able to go to the LSU and Georgia games this year at Jordan Hare and see him play in person.  This has been a season unlike any other and he was the biggest part of it.  "Refuse 2 Lose".  War Cam Eagle.

Week 13 Review - SEC Champs

 
First, I want to give props to all the Auburn bloggers out there, even the ones I do not care for.  To blog decent stuff each week and get it out on time is definitely harder than it looks.  As always, three young kids and work make it hard for me.  Add the holidays and getting sick and it gets even harder.  My apologies to the few people who actually read this blog.  Another thing that has hurt is the lost of Jerry Hinnen at War Blog Eagle to CBS Sports.  I do not agree with Jerry a good deal of the time but I really enjoyed reading his stuff and I know how much he has enjoyed this season and it would have been great to read his thoughts about it.  It was definitely a large blow to the Auburn blogging world as nobody right now is quite as good as Jerry.  We also lost most of Will Collier behind the pay-per-read wall at Auburnsports.com.  Thank goodness we still have Andy Bitter to keep us up-to-date.  I am sure someone as good as Andy will not last long as an Auburn beat writer.

OK with that out of the way, back to the matter at hand...  Auburn is SEC champions.  A lot of people I talk with year in and year out think I am always too hard on Auburn.  I always say it is where you are coming from.  When I grade Auburn any season I grade them on whether they can first win the SEC West and then whether they can win the whole thing.  Winning the SEC West is my goal for any Auburn team any season.  If they are not playing that way I am going to say it.  Just about any team can get to a bowl game.  It is one of the greatest accomplishments in college football to win the Southeastern Conference.  This 2010 Auburn team is in that rare group and they did it in style.  Like my last post said, I thought this could game could be a trap for Auburn.  I am very glad that I was wrong.  This Auburn team came out and swept away South Carolina in the biggest rout in SEC championship game history.

I will never forget going crazy with my family when Cam connected with Darvin Adams on the tipped "Hail Mary" pass at the end of the first half.  The party was on after that.  We broke out the margaritas and Auburn provided plenty more entertainment with the game ending Tasharvan Bell touchdown interception plus Cam and the Auburn offense getting a couple more as well.  We then had the scrubs in the game with over FIVE MINUTES LEFT like it was homecoming or something???!!!???  I never saw that coming but was so happy to see it.  Even the scrubs put it to South Carolina with Barrett Trotter running and passing and Super Mario Fannin scoring the final touchdown.  It was again truly great to be an Auburn Tiger.

It is great to be in the mythical national championship game.  If you have to play in the system, as flawed as it is, you might as well play in the best game.  However no matter what happens this team is one of the all time greats in Auburn history.  The SEC is still bigger to me as it is a legitimate postseason game as opposed to a system where the two teams wait 40 days or more to play a championship game.  What if the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburg Steelers waited 40 days after the NFL championship games to play the Super Bowl?  What if the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers waited 40 days after the NBA conference final series to play the NBA Finals?  What if Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal waited 40 days to play a Grand Slam final after winning the semi-finals?  The answer to all those questions is that it would stink and the two teams or players would NOT BE THE SAME as the ones that ended the season.

I know Auburn is the better team but you never know what will happen when a team plays 40 days after its last game.  It is certainly much tougher when your team stars and coaches have to go on a two week award tour where everyone tells you how great you are and you are not working.  It will be a big challenge for this Auburn football team but these guys have met every challenge so far and I know there is no way that Oregon will present a harder challenge than being down 24-0 to Bama in Tuscaloosa. 

To end on a positive note, you have to know that Bama fans still have a sick feeling in their stomachs blowing that lead.  All I know is that I sure would if the shoe was on the other foot.  I also have to say that  Auburn vs. Oregon is just a cool matchup.  As I have grown to loathe the bowl system the only thing I can find good about it is that it occasionally gives cool matchups.  This is one of them. 

Finally, I want to say one more time, the 2010 Auburn football Tigers are the Southeastern Conference football champions.  War Eagle.