First, the Sugar Bowl... The Auburn football team getting invited to the Sugar Bowl is a great thing. That is something we can all agree on. Auburn is definitely the #2 team in the conference since they not only lost to the #1 team in the country in Bama like the other 8-4 SEC teams but they also had to play the #2 team in the country as well. Auburn had the harder schedule period. On top of that Florida and Tennessee embarrassed themselves worse than Auburn in their last games and Auburn beat LSU. It is a big deal getting to the Sugar Bowl regardless of how bad Auburn finished the season.
HOWEVER getting to the Sugar Bowl in no way takes away the stains from this season. Getting to the Sugar Bowl does not make up for the horrendous coaching in the losses to Clemson and Georgia. It does not make up for losing to Georgia and Bama for the third year in a row. It does not make up for Auburn's coaches being completely incapable of throwing the football if they are not running over somebody. It does not change the fact that the SEC and Auburn are not that good this year. I cannot remember a four loss SEC team ever making it to the Sugar Bowl.
I am also sick to death of reading all these Auburn sites trying to revise history and say everything bad this season was because of injuries. It is a gross oversimplification and it is false. The whitewashing of these facts lets the coaches off the hook. I have read many times in the last month that Auburn only lost to Georgia because of injuries. That is simply not true. Auburn was good enough to beat Georgia with injuries. Auburn lost to Georgia for one reason and that is bad coaching.
As I wrote in a previous post you would think from reading other Auburn sites that Auburn would have been undefeated national champs the last two seasons if Sean White would not have gotten hurt. It is simply ridiculous and I am sick of reading it. I never hear anyone explaining why a healthy Sean White was so bad against Texas A&M? Oh sorry I bet it was all the offensive line's fault or maybe he was secretly hurt in that game as well. There is always an excuse for Sean White who still has yet to lead a win over ONE legitimately good team unless you want to count LSU this season but since Auburn did not score a touchdown I give most of the credit to the defense for holding LSU under 20 points.
I am even sicker of reading about how Auburn was one of the best teams in the country during their mid-season six game winning streak. Again it was a good streak and I love when Auburn blows out other SEC teams as much as the next guy but this streak is not near as impressive as people try to make it out to be. Auburn beat LSU, Louisiana Monroe and the bottom three teams in the SEC West along with the second worst team in the horrid SEC East. LSU was the only legitimate win on a national scale and Auburn did not score an offensive touchdown in that game. It is great Auburn won those games but again this streak is being completely blown out of proportion.
As for the bowl game itself I see the chances of an Auburn win as pretty low. Oklahoma is simply a better team. I think Auburn will score some points but I think Oklahoma will score more. The saddest thing for me is that it does not really matter if Auburn wins or loses. Gus Malzahn could make this a big win regardless of what the scoreboard says if he was not the most unbelievably ridiculously stubborn person he is. He could make everyone happy by at least throwing the ball as much as he runs it and really putting on a show (and when I say throwing the ball I mean legitimate passes downfield).
Let it all hang out! Throw to those freshman wide receivers! Get them involved! Make them happy! Make them not want to transfer. Get all the Auburn fans excited. Get all the recruits excited. I believe the majority of Auburn fans to a lesser extent feel like I do. Nobody wants to watch the hundreds of runs up the middle Gus Malzahn calls. Again I am not saying Auburn should change to the Air Raid offense but BALANCE the offense and throw legitimate downfield passes more. Oklahoma has one of the worst pass defenses in the country and this a New Year's Six big time bowl game. There is not a better time to air it out some... but Malzahn won't do it. We will come out with the same game plan as always and run Pettway or whoever with a few passes unless we get behind and have to throw more.
On to hoops... The basketball Tigers have started to make people notice with road wins over Oklahoma and UConn. Now again this is definitely a big deal for Auburn and something to savor but it is also getting blown out of proportion. It is obvious Oklahoma is not very good and UConn was already without their two or three best players due to injury and lost their next best player during the game to a concussion and they still almost won. Now no Auburn team in the last fifteen years could have won those games so it is something to enjoy but unfortunately I still do not see Auburn coming close to the big dance in March.
That was also evident last night as Auburn blew a double-digit second half lead to lose to Georgia at home in the conference opener. Everyone knows this group of very good freshman are going to have some growing pains but Auburn really needed to get that win last night after starting so strong. It was a very disappointing loss. I will say the reffing was some of the worst I have seen in awhile as Georgia shot almost 40 free throws. However Auburn still should have won but they simply died on defense and rebounding in the second half. The three-pointers are pretty but you have to do the defense and rebounding as well to get the win.
I do not want to sound too sour though as Bruce Pearl has done a tremendous job trying to bring Auburn basketball back from the dead. The recruiting is maybe the best in the entire history of the program. The current group of freshmen are amazing with big man Austin Wiley being maybe the biggest recruit in Auburn history. He is certainly the biggest legacy recruit ever with his mom, Vickie Orr, being one of the greatest women's basketball players in Auburn history and his dad Aubrey Wiley being the leading rebounder in the SEC one year on the men's side. This season though rests more in the hands of Auburn's other outstanding freshmen: Jared Harper, Mustapha Heron and Danjel Purifoy.
These guys are very good, the only problem is they will not be together for long. It is a good bet Purifoy will declare after this season so Auburn has to make it work now even with these young guys. I love their talent and the energy they bring. I love Pearl. He has really gotten these guys going. My only complaints would be the inconsistent defense and rebounding, the stagnant half court offense and these guys doing some really dumb things at the worst times. I know these guys are freshmen but they have played basketball their whole lives. They know this stuff.
For example, in the Boston College loss after Auburn worked so hard to tie the game in the first half they then turned it over two times in a row and fell behind again. They worked hard again and finally tied it up again in the second half only to come down and throw up a 30 foot three-pointer and lose the chance to take the lead again. You have to come down and get a good shot in those situations. There is no excuse even for freshmen to blow that many opportunities.
You saw some of that against Georgia as well. It doesn't matter if the shot is made, it matters that you continue to work to get a good one. This group like so many others just chuck way too many low-percentage three-pointers. I just hope they can come back from this tough loss to have some success in-conference. Again the improvement has to show in the conference record. Auburn has had ONE winning conference record since 2000. The team has to win most of their home games to accomplish that and Auburn is already behind now.
At least we know we have a proven good coach in charge. Even with this team's warts I love Bruce Pearl. He is not only a good coach but coaches a brand of basketball people like to watch and unlike Gus Malzahn who could not utter anything sincere in an interview if his life depended on it, Pearl always gives great interviews. It is just a pleasure having the guy as Auburn's head basketball coach. I hope he stays long enough to put together at least one really good team. The program is showing signs of life but unfortunately there is still a long way to go...
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