Auburn basketball... the frustration continues. Only Auburn could bring in a top coach, the first two five star recruits in the school's history plus several other very good recruits AND STILL STINK. Yes things have improved some but Auburn is still the conference's worst program overall since 1992 with a conference high 268 LOSSES. To put those 268 losses in conference in perspective, Kentucky has only 95 losses in conference in that period of time and Bama has 206. After all the hype died down we are left with another losing record in conference of 7-11. Auburn has now had only one winning record in conference in the last SEVENTEEN years.
Another frustrating thing is that for awhile South Carolina held the title of worst program since they entered the conference in 1992 but now even they have passed Auburn. In fact they were the one program as bad as Auburn and they hired Frank Martin at the exact same time Auburn hired Bruce Pearl. They have even less tradition than Auburn yet Martin had them in the Final Four this season while Auburn just notched another losing record in conference. If the losing record in conference was not bad enough Auburn also lost to one of the worst teams in conference history in the first round of the SEC Tournament (???!!!???). Missouri finished 8-24 and 2-16 in the SEC yet they beat Auburn in the SEC Tournament... ARE YOU KIDDING ME???
Sigh. Well as always here is how we got here documented on this blog:
- Jeff Lebo was fired at end of 2009-10 season.
- After 2009-10: Auburn Basketball Memories
- After 2009-10: Auburn Basketball Analysis (Auburn has only won 34 conference games since this post was written)
- During 2010-11 season: Is Auburn Basketball Cursed? (The Barbee era was over before it barely began)
- After 2011-12 season: Critical Condition (Auburn now has only three winning conference records in TWENTY FIVE YEARS)
- After 2011-12 season: Auburn Basketball is at a dead end
- After 2012-13 season: "I did not post one thing on basketball this year. Nothing has changed since the post I wrote last year titled "Auburn Basketball is at a dead end". In fact things only got worse. My gosh we lost our last 10 games in a row and 16 out of 17 games to end the season. Coach Barbee even gave up during that span. He completely lost his fire, never got off the bench and just doled out platitudes after games. Basketball is a complete and full blown disaster. It is dead and it is the Auburn administration's fault for letting it die on the table over the last 20 years... There just seems to be no hope for Auburn basketball."
- After 2015-16 season: Auburn Basketball 2015-16: BROKEN (Pearl becomes first coach in Auburn history to have back-to-back 20 loss seasons)
I mean what else can you say than Auburn has only had three winning records in conference in TWENTY FIVE YEARS. Most Auburn fans have no idea how bad Auburn is historically. All they know is we had Charles Barkley and some other good players. I guess that is why incompetent people like our current AD can hang on so long with a couple of good years in football and girl's softball. Auburn is accused constantly of expecting too much out of the football program well that is certainly not true in basketball.
I even thought things might change this season with players like Daniel Purifoy, Mustapha Heron and young Austin Wiley joining midseason. Alas it was not too be as the team seemed to get worse over the season. There were some bright spots early in the season with wins over Oklahoma and UConn on the road but they turned out to be mirages. Both of those teams ended the season with losing records and UConn was missing its top three players. Those were still good wins for Auburn mind you but they were not the indicators of a program turnaround some thought.
Purifoy turned out to be maddeningly inconsistent and battled some injuries and while Wiley showed flashes of greatness he was just a high schooler trying to play college basketball. Heron had a great season but it just was not enough. Auburn had some other decent players but they just did not seem to fit together very well. Point guard Jared Harper looked promising early and then turned into a big chucker. Senior guard T.J. Dunans hit a lucky game winner against Mercer and then he started shooting a lot more as well. It just seemed like everyone thought they were "the man". Add it all together and on offense you had a lot of guys chucking up the ball the first chance they got.
It was maddening to watch. These guys have played basketball all their lives but show no knowledge of even simple tactical concepts. Case in point, the biggest early preseason game was the Under Armor Showcase in Madison Square Garden on ESPN against Boston College, the worst team in the ACC this year and last. However they of course took it to Auburn. Auburn finally tied up the game in the second half after a lot of bad luck and rather than working for a good shot somebody jacked up an NBA three pointer which of course missed. Auburn would go on to lose the game. That kind of stuff happened all season on offense. There seemed to be no basketball sense at all but just a bunch of ill advised chucking.
It only got worse on defense as Auburn turned in the worst season defensively in basketball ever I believe. They routinely gave up 80 or 90 points a game. They ended the season ranked 319th nationally by allowing 79.4 points per game. The defensive issues were at their worst in the final month of the season. The Tigers allowed 60-plus points in the second half of three straight games and blew two double-digit leads late on the road. It got almost comical how bad the defense was. I like Bruce Pearl a lot. I love Chuck Person as one of Auburn's greatest athletic legends. However I cannot point to any facet of this team being well coached. I just do not understand.
With all that said, I guess the only thing to hang on to is the fact that Auburn is recruiting better than it ever has in basketball. The Tigers are supposed to bring in several new top recruits this coming season. Surely we will see some dividends soon from that. The Tigers also finished with an overall winning record which they had not done in awhile. Of course it is hard to stay positive for long as there have been rumors of Heron leaving in the offseason. Auburn seems to lose players every season so you know it is going to happen but to lose Heron would be devastating. He is Auburn's best player and should be even better after a whole year of experience. The same can be said for Purifoy and Wiley as well. Auburn has to keep this trio together to have a shot at that elusive winning conference record.
To conclude I have described Auburn basketball in the past as being in "critical condition". Things are still pretty bad as I have described throughout this post but I think we can at least upgrade the program's condition to stable. Bruce Pearl himself actually addressed this exact description directly: “Our program is not in the hospital. It is not in critical condition. Our program is in a great position." I am not sure I would go straight to "great position" but there is a great opportunity to at least have a good season or two. That would be a huge deal for Auburn basketball.
However the program is certainly not out of danger yet. Auburn could be in back in big trouble again if Pearl or any of these players leave. I am just so tired of watching Auburn lose in basketball. I know many Auburn fans feel the same way. The fan base desperately needs a good season to have some kind of reason to keep paying attention to this downtrodden program.
However the program is certainly not out of danger yet. Auburn could be in back in big trouble again if Pearl or any of these players leave. I am just so tired of watching Auburn lose in basketball. I know many Auburn fans feel the same way. The fan base desperately needs a good season to have some kind of reason to keep paying attention to this downtrodden program.
