Back in the Saddle Again

It is time to kick off another football season of blogging on the Auburn Tigers and the SEC. It has been awhile since I have posted for a variety of reasons. It has been a crazy summer, of course with three kids in the house it is always crazy. I am always trying to get organized but still haven’t quite got there yet. I have found that you have to be organized and plan some time during the week to send out a decent blog post. I did not get there this summer.

I did finish my biggest and best piece to date “Saturdays to Remember… and Forget – The Decade of the Eighties Part 1” but unfortunately I did not get it finished before practice started and now nobody will care since the offseason is over. I think I will keep it saved and work on more parts and look to release it next year.

So there you go… kids, my disorganization and a huge blog post that will not see the light of day anytime soon… that will pretty much sum up the summer of 2010 for me blog-wise.

The next question is how could I have waited this long to post? I mean the season is just about to start! Well that reason is simple when following Auburn, there is not any actual hard facts or observations to comment on. Only the football team and certain other insiders who cannot distribute their thoughts and observations know what is actually going on. All of the beat writers and blogs have no idea what is going on until the coaching staff decides to tell them.

It has just ruined the whole “preseason” for me. Fall practice just does not get me excited at all when the only thing you read about is pure speculation. I think the thing about Auburn that frustrates me the most is that they do not give out stats from scrimmages. At the very least that gives you something to talk about. I mean even the biggest control freak in the league and the guy that started no-access rules, Nick $aban, GIVES OUT STATS FROM SCRIMMAGES. At the very least that is all I ask. It is obviously not asking too much if $aban allows it. However at Auburn we are forced to try and form a picture from hearsay by the players and vague babble from the coaches. It is ludicrous. It just seems like a waste of time to try and make any conclusions based on hearsay and vague comments. There are no witnesses of the events that people are trying to draw conclusions from.  I understand the need to close off a lot of things and I have heard all the good reasons but I still think a little more access could be granted for the fans.

However there are too many Auburn sites and bloggers though to let that stop them and hey I still read some of them too. However I do not get much enjoyment of it. It has pretty much gotten to the point where football season starts on Labor Day. The days of getting excited when practice starts are over for me while the practices are made “top secret”.

With that said, I was at West Point the first week of August and I did get to watch parts of Army’s first two football practice. So at least I got to see somebody practice some football this August…

Back to Auburn, I guess it is time to make some preseason predictions. Another damper for me every year is the nauseating sunshine-pumping from the various Auburn outlets. I understand some of it but it seems to get worse every year. There just does not seem to be much difference between the way Auburn and Bama fans act now. There was a time not so long ago that Auburn fans were much more objective and realistic about their team’s chances and not the complete homers that most Bama fans are. That does not seem true anymore. A spin around the various Auburn sites and you will find that Auburn is absolutely awesome, Gene Chizik is already a certified great coach and everything is great and wonderful. Now for the record things are definitely looking up for this season but I am not quite ready to go as far as most Auburn people.

First, a comment on last year. A prevailing topic since the season ended is how great the team did last year, how much they exceeded expectations, etc… I beg to differ. I would be cast as “negative” but I predicted Auburn would go 6-6 last year and 2-4 in the SEC in the regular season. Auburn ended up going 7-5 last year and 3-5 in the SEC in the regular season. I predicted we would lose to Tennessee but I predicted we would beat Kentucky so those two games were a wash. Basically the only thing last year’s team did that I did not think they would do was beat Ole Miss. Those are the facts.

Now before we crown mean Gene the greatest coach in Auburn history and anoint Gus Malzahn as the greatest offensive coach ever I think we need to actually beat Arkansas, LSU, Georgia or Bama. I think we need to avoid three game losing streaks and three game streaks of blowing 14 point leads.

Finally let us get to the actual predictions. Looking at the schedule my first take is that we will go 1-1 vs. Clemson and South Carolina, 1-1 vs. Arkansas and LSU and 1-1 vs. Georgia and Bama and win the rest. That would put us at 9-3 and maybe headed to the Citrus or Cotton Bowls. I think if this team is a little better we improve by one game to 10-2 and it is definitely possible we could also finish at 8-4. I will go with 9-3 and 5-3 in the SEC as my official prediction.

That is a two game improvement and would include a couple of wins over the four teams that we need to beat. That would definitely be a good season and show a lot of progress. However the goal every year is to win the SEC West and get to Atlanta. I believe this is Auburn’s best chance to do that for awhile. If Auburn does not do it then it is a disappointment to me.

I will say though that Auburn fans need to enjoy this season for all it’s worth. I think it will be the best season Auburn has for awhile. Auburn has TWENTY FOUR seniors leading the team this season. This includes FOUR starters on the offensive line, two of the main defensive tackles (there are only 5 legitimate defensive tackles on the roster), the two starting defensive ends, two starting linebackers, two starting safeties, two starting kickers and the starting tailback. It will take Auburn a season or more to get back to this level due to Tommy Tuberville’s last two horrible recruiting classes. This team has a lot of seniors and a lot of freshmen and not much in between.

I predict that this offense will be the highest rated offense in Auburn history, statistically. So before the sunshine-pumpers lose their minds, I, as a “negative” fan, am predicting this. Now I do not think it will be the actual best offense in Auburn history but it will be very good and like every other “spread” offense it will run up big numbers in the three creampuff out-of-conference games. I have heard the stats from last year’s team ad nauseum. The only stats that count to me are the stats IN-conference. Auburn’s 2009 SEC offensive stats were a bit more representative of how good they were.

I will also predict that Gus Malzahn will leave Auburn after this great offensive season for a head coaching job on the backs of these seniors. This will be his most marketable moment and like I said it will be awhile before Auburn will be this good again. I think that he will especially see the lack of talent he will have to work with on the offensive line next year and beyond. I believe Trooper Taylor will be promoted to offensive coordinator. He could be a great one or not. I do not know however I would not think he would be quite as good running this style of offense as Malzahn and every rookie coordinator has a learning curve.

With all this said I will venture one more prediction that nobody will agree with. I think this will be the best season Gene Chizik will have as head coach at Auburn. I hope I am wrong on this one and the other ones but that is the way I see it.

Let me turn back to the positive though. I will give Gene Chizik and Co. full credit for two things this last offseason. These two things are amazing and hardly ever happen. One, Chizik was able to hold the entire coaching staff together and that is very rare in this modern age of college football. He also brought in a full class of 25 new players in plus 5 other players that count toward last year’s scholarship count. That is simply amazing.

I hope this monster class will be the foundation for another SEC championship for the Auburn Tigers. First however let us see what this team and these seniors can do this season. I may be “negative” at times but I love Auburn football. I am looking out my window on this opening Saturday of the 2010 season and it is absolutely beautiful. I cannot wait to watch my Auburn Tigers get started tonight. War Eagle!

Summer Begins...

Memorial Day.  A serious holiday but it is also the official start to every summer.  For our family it definitely was as we headed to Atlanta this past week and did Six Flags, a Braves game and ended with a little trip to Dave and Busters.  Six Flags was great the day after Memorial Day and not crowded at all.  My son and I did the pictured above Goliath roller coaster three times and hit just about every other coaster in the park.  They even had plenty to keep my younger kids happy.  Unfortunately the younger kids did not do quite as well the rest of the trip but it was still good. 

My son's club soccer team also finished 4th in the state in his age division in the Division II State Cup a few weeks ago as well.  I was really proud of their team.  Between soccer, end-of-school activities and this vacation I have definitely gotten side tracked on my blogging.  I finally got to sit down this morning and catch back up on the various Auburn blogs.  Here are a few takes on current events...

1. The Auburn baseball team.  It has been great seeing the baseball team win the SEC West regular season title, get to the SEC tourney and now hosting a regional.  Hopefully we can take Clemson tonight and move on.  My only bit of advice for Auburn coach John Pawlowski is he should have pitched his best pitcher against Bama in the first round of the SEC tournament.  He should know that if you can beat Bama in any kind of tournament Auburn fans feel like they still got something good out of it even if they did not win it (see the 1999 SEC basketball tournament).

2. The World Cup. Now that ESPN has unleashed it's full marketing strength for the World Cup, it will probably be the most watched one in American history.  Since my son is really into soccer and is really fired up about it I will probably watch more of it than I ever have.  It should be fun and may get some Olympics-type buzz but I don't see anything changing for soccer here in the USA...

3. The Big Cat Weekend and Auburn football recruiting.  I just cannot get too fired up about recruiting this time of the year.  I am glad we are apparently working hard at it since to play at a high level in the SEC you have to but it is a LONG time till Signing Day.

4. General Auburn football impressions.  I have always said that most fans are much happier with their team if they have a good offense.  That is certainly proving true as Auburn bloggers and fans appear to be completely in love with Gus Malzahn and his high octane offense.  There is no doubt that this year's offense will be the best statistically in Auburn history.  It will absolutely run it up several times and put up massive numbers.  As long as that garners around nine wins and a bowl everyone seems happy.   

I am also glad to see us have a very good offense but am not as smitten with Malzahn's defense-killing offense.  I much prefer one along the lines of our 2004 team.  People forget that offense and defense are part of one team and what one unit does effects the other.  I watched our thin defense get put in so many bad spots last year and finish as the worst defense statistically in Auburn history.  Our defense will have a little more depth this year but not much.  I just do not think you can win a championship in the SEC that way.  See Urban Meyer at Florida who did some things similar to Malzahn at Utah but won both his SEC and national championships on defense and changed his offensive philosophy to help his defense. 

5. Celtics vs. Lakers.  I love my Celts and will always remember the beat down we put on the Lakers to win the title in 2008.  However with Bynum and Artest playing this year and the Celts not quite as good as 2008 I just do not see the Celts pulling it off this year.  Man I hate the Lakers...

6. Upcoming here at STR.  I actually had been working behind the scenes at STR on my biggest post to date during the month of April.  I am working on a series looking at some of the Saturdays To Remember in Auburn football since David Housel wrote the original "Saturdays To Remember" book.  I have finished the "Decade of the Eighties Part 1" and will post it soon.  I had a lot of fun writing it and hope people have some fun reading it...

Auburn signs #1 basketball player in state of Alabama

Let me write that one more time...  "Auburn signs the #1 basketball player in state of Alabama".  This week Josh Langford, out Lee High School in Huntsville and ranked the #1 rated player in the state by the Birmingham news committed to Auburn.  Yes he might not be DeMarcus Cousins but it is still a huge signing nonetheless.  As I wrote in the post below, Auburn has been the worst program in the SEC over the last twenty years and has been a complete non-entity in basketball recruiting in the state of Alabama over the past decade.  When you put it in that context I do not think you can understate this signing.  It is just the thing Auburn and coach Barbee needed to really get things started.

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.

A-Day 2010 Review

Well first let me give a little blogger's note.  This post officially brings me up-to-date on the blog.  I know that not many people will be interested NOW but I finally finished my basketball posts (a month late) and they are below this post.  I feel bad about that but I do not feel bad about not having any more football posts this spring.  I think I am actually on time for once since A-Day is basically the only thing anyone has actually SEEN this spring.

I used to dread the spring sunshine pumping of the Tuberville era.  The open practices drew a lot of the hard core fans in the area and they usually posted their take in one of the various Auburn forums.  Plenty of them would make it around to me.  After you read one it seemed like Auburn would be better than the Dallas Cowboys.  Those posts used to drive me crazy.  Now I actually miss those posts.  Why?  Because at least it was an opinion based on someone actually SEEING the practice.

We now have the rigid draconian no-access rules (copied from the dictator across the state) that prevents anyone from seeing our top secret practices.  It is pathetic, it is ludicrous, it is sad.  It was never more so than last week for the last big scrimmage.  Auburn had the poor beat writers locked out and was then twittering lame comments to the fan base.  To top it off, the dictator across the state who sets the standard for lack of access allows stats to be compiled and provided to the fan base for most scrimmages but NOT at Auburn.  That is my lowest expectation and Auburn is not even providing that.  Obviously if the $abatron allows it, it cannot hurt.  Come on Auburn, at least give us some stats.

With that said it has been really sad reading all of the spring practice "reports" and especially the "analysis" based on those reports.  It is all hearsay and supposition.  It has been full of "well Coach Chizik is not talking about this guy so he must be doing bad" kind of stuff.  I have quickly lost interest in it.

That brings us to A-Day 2010.  Usually A-Day is not too exciting but again since it is now the only time anyone gets to see the team play it is a little more noteworthy.  It also gets more interesting when the team is replacing their quarterback.  That is definitely the place to start with A-Day 2010.  Here are the stats:

•Barrett Trotter completed 7-of-9 passes for 154 yards, including touchdown passes of 50 and 44 yards.
•Neil Caudle was 17-of-21 for 199 yards and had a 70-yard touchdown pass to receiver Quindarius Carr.
•Cameron Newton was 3-of-8 for 80 yards.
•Clint Moseley was 10-of-12 for 55 yards.

I watched the entire game and from my perspective Barrett Trotter looked the best.  Neil Caudle was right there with him.  However after watching how they handled the playing time it appears that Cam Newton has already won the job.  I had assumed that was already the case but was impressed with Trotter's command and Caudle's release.  Clint Moseley only came in for mop-up duty in the second half so I do not think he is at the level of the others. 

Physically Newton displayed some of his raw ability.  You could see how big he was just standing there.  You could also see his arm strength when he threw a deep pass.  Unfortunately you also saw it on a few short passes when he threw two balls way too high.  What we did not see was his running ability and that is a big part of his game.  Basically you do not bring in a kid of Newton's caliber to sit the bench.  I fully expect him to be the starter next season barring injury.  However A-Day 2010 definitely showed that he still has some things to work on.

You have to feel bad for Neil Caudle and I do.  The guy sure looks like he has some big-time ability but has just never been able to put it together good enough to get the job.  I think he will back up Newton although Barrett Trotter has to be uncomfortably close in his rearview mirror.  Trotter looked poised and aggressive from the start.  He came out firing and delivered.  I think he will back up next year if nothing happens to Newton and start in 2012. 

I also have to tip my hat to Gus Malzahn as each quarterback including Clint Moseley looked well-coached.  They all seemed to understand the offense and got the ball off quickly.  I was also very happy to see that all of them had fairly strong arms.  There were no Brandon Cox or Chris Todd weak arms in the bunch.  Thank goodness...

The running back discussion pretty much starts and ends with Mario Fannin.  He far and away looked like the best running back out there.  The offenses did not run that much anyway.  None of the other running backs did anything impressive that I saw.  The best running play outside of Fannin was Terrell Zachary on a reverse.

The wide receivers looked good as a whole and actually had the best running plays of the day on runs after they caught the ball.  Terrell Zachary took a short pass and took it to the house and Quindarious Carr from my hometown and current residence of Huntsville, Alabama made the play of the day.  Carr took a mid-range pass and put on a Bo Jackson-esque display of speed for a 70-yard touchdown.  Several defenders had great angles on Carr and he outran them.  It was a WOW play and gave Carr a well deserved game MVP award. 

The offensive line appeared to be a wall around the quarterbacks for most of the game so you have to give them a thumbs-up it appeared.  The defense was hard to comment on.  To me, they looked like a sparring partner for the offense.  They were as vanilla as it gets most of the day.  They got a few sacks but only a couple looked like real ones.  They played hard and made a lot of tackles but they also missed quite a few as well.  It was pretty hard for me to get a feel for the defense.

About the only thing that jumped out to me is that I hope Antoine Carter stays healthy.  He could have a big year.  He has had the raw ability his entire career but I sure hope he can put it all together this coming season.  Well that is about it.  As I said earlier, this or any other opinion may be way off but at least we finally got to SEE some of the 2010 Auburn Tigers.

Auburn Basketball Analysis

 

Here are the facts. Since the SEC went to divisions in 1992 Auburn has 180 regular season conference losses. That is only second to South Carolina’s 182 regular season conference losses. I believe that if you consider the fact that South Carolina has had to play Kentucky one more time than Auburn every season in that time that you have to say Auburn is the worst basketball program in the conference since the SEC went to divisions. Kentucky is BY FAR the best team in the conference since the SEC went to divisions. There is no one remotely close to their 234 regular season conference wins. The second best total is 181 wins by Florida. South Carolina has had to play them twice every year as well.

Also when you add to those facts that Auburn has also played in the Beard Eaves Mausoleum that entire time you have to say Auburn is the worst basketball program in the conference up till now. Finally though after 20 years of mostly bad to mediocre basketball Auburn is poised to really do something about it. Auburn basketball will move into the new Auburn Arena along with what appears to be a young charismatic up-and-coming head coach

The last post was about my memories, this post is about my takes on various things regarding Auburn basketball through the years and on current events, let’s get started…

THE BUILDING
Mausoleum:
1 : a usually stone building with places for entombment of the dead above ground
2 : a large gloomy building or room

I believe I can safely say using the paragraphs above as evidence that most of Auburn’s teams have been “the dead above ground” and WOW I think everyone can agree that Beard Eaves was a “large gloomy building”.

As I have stated in detail, I have seen a lot of basketball games in that dump. I also jogged in it, saw concerts in it and graduated in it. I still do not have anything good to say about it. It has always been “The Mausoleum” to me. I could not believe some of the nauseating sentimental takes I read before and after the last game against Miss St this year. I mean give me a break. The women had a few moments in there but trying to talk about all the men’s basketball memories in the mausoleum? I think I covered most of them in my last post . There just are not that many and I do not think anyone has ever walked in that tomb and said “wow what a great place to play basketball”.

A LARGE GLOOMY BUILDING… Good bye and good riddance Beard Eaves Mausoleum. I will not miss you and will feel much better when you are a PARKING LOT.

THE COACHES
Before I start I would like to establish a point of reference. Who is the best basketball coach Auburn has ever had? It is not even close. It is the man whose name is part of the sorry building I talk about above. Joel Eaves. He certainly deserved a better building to put his name on. Coach Eaves did coach in a different era of basketball but it was not like the Auburn job was any easier back then. I grade a coach on their conference record and Eaves’ conference record was spectacular. His teams went 124-75 in conference.  He still holds the record for most wins and most conference wins in Auburn history. He went 213-100 overall. He is the best pure and simple. The only other basketball coach at Auburn to compile a winning conference record has his name on the football stadium…

Sonny Smith

Sonny Smith was obviously a good coach as our greatest NCAA tournament success was under him. However as good as that tournament success was his teams never had really good regular season conference records. In fact Smith finished his career with a losing record in conference. To me as I said above that is the biggest indicator of how good a coach was.  Sonny Smith went 173-154 overall and 84-114 in conference.

Also all of his tournament success was when had Chuck Person on the team. We won the SEC title and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in 1985 and made it to the Elite Eight in 1986 with Person. Without Person or at least an experienced Person we went out in the first round in 1983 to Richmond in Charles Barkley’s last game. We did not make it past the second round in 1987 or 1988. So you kind of have to give a lot of credit for that tournament success to Chuck Person and that squad of guys.

However you still have to give Smith credit for leading the program to five straight NCAA appearances. Our administration missed one of their best opportunities to help the basketball program after we reached the Elite Eight. I believe starting plans for a new Arena and doing various other little things could have helped the program immeasurably but of course that did not happen.

Smith, like most of our coaches, was an older coach who was on the backside of his career. He was unable to continue the grueling work needed to recruit in basketball at Auburn and the bottom fell out in 1989 with a 2-14 conference record leaving Smith scrambling to Virginia Commonwealth.

Smith’s legacy though is Charles Barkley and Chuck Person and the tournament success Auburn had. It is also about him being a great person overall and his humor and wit. Overall his tenure at Auburn was one of the better runs in Auburn’s less than stellar basketball history.

Tommy Joe Eagles

First and foremost it is still extremely sad that it has been over 15 years since Eagles passed away. I probably know his time at Auburn better than most as I was a student there during that time. Eagles had done a good job at Louisiana Tech. It seemed like a decent hire. His time at Auburn was a lot like Jeff Lebo’s. His teams played very hard but he just could not seem to get any talent especially big men.

Eagles only managed one winning season and a brief NIT appearance at Auburn. There is really not much else to say.

Cliff Ellis

Auburn had the all-time great 1999 season under Cliff Ellis. His part in that must be recognized. However other than that I think he was the most overrated coach in Auburn history. First and foremost he got us on probation twice and that is completely unacceptable to do even once. The four years before 1999 were all losing records in the conference. Ellis always covered that up by scheduling a lot of preseason cupcakes. That is why I judge the success of an Auburn basketball season by the conference record. That tells the truth. It was also why I did not want Ellis to pass Joel Eaves in overall victories because his conference record next to Eaves was not even close.  Ellis went 186-125 overall and 73-87 inconference.

Auburn have everyone coming back but one person in 2000 from the great 1999 team and managed to completely disintegrate and not even win the division after a great start. Things went quickly downhill after that and nothing else good happened other than Ellis recruiting Marquis Daniels and him leading us on that little run his senior year to the Sweet Sixteen. However that Auburn team only had an 8-8 record in conference. Auburn went right back into the tank after that and Jeff Lebo was left with things just as bad as ever.

So all-in-all it appears that 1999 was the exception and not the rule of the Cliff Ellis era. An era produced one great season and three NCAA tournament berths but one that also only had two winning conference records in 10 seasons and two NCAA probations. I guess things ended up on the positive side because we got 1999 out of it but otherwise it was a wash and the program was left in the same shape that it was when Ellis started, if not worse.

Jeff Lebo

I think everyone is in agreement on the Jeff Lebo era. He was a good guy and he got his teams to play hard but he could not recruit many good players especially big men. Lebo got to this past season with nearly nothing to show for two whole recruiting classes. I know all the reasons why it is hard to get good talent to Auburn but you at least have to find a few guys that will stick around.

THE ADMINISTRATION
Here is where the buck stops and the blame ultimately lies. The Auburn administration, leadership and power brokers are to blame for the school having the worst basketball program in the conference since the SEC went to divisions. They absolutely did NOTHING to help the program and did not even do enough to keep the program at a mediocre level. It is just shameful and actually pretty stupid to treat your second biggest revenue producer like this even at a football school.

I think the people who are now giving our AD and administration kudos for the new arena are naïve and wrong. Anyone who thinks this AD and this administration built this new arena for the good of the basketball program is blind. It is obvious that it was going to cost more long term to fix up and maintain Beard Eaves than build the new arena. It is as simple as that. It was a simple financial decision. I mean it would have been for the good of the basketball program if it would have been done about a decade earlier. Instead they waited till Beard Eaves was literally falling down.

There are also numerous other things that could have been done to help the basketball program but they were not done. It was just left out to rot and that is just what it has done till now.

THE FUTURE
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?

Auburn Basketball Memories

Ah Auburn basketball. Well since this is my first post since I started STR on Auburn basketball I would like to state my “credentials”. I have watched a lot of Auburn basketball in my life. In fact when I was at school at Auburn I saw a lot more basketball games than I saw football games and most of those teams were not very good. Since we will open a new arena next season with a new coach this seems like a good time to look back and look forward and evaluate where Auburn is at.

My first memories of Auburn basketball were Charles Barkley in 1984. I had just started high school. I remember watching the game where Sir Charles and Auburn beat #1 Kentucky in Auburn. I can’t remember the game but I remember one of my favorite basketball plays ever being a Charles Barkley steal that he took coast-to-coast dribbling around his back at one point and then hammer dunking it. His athleticism for his body type was just amazing.

I also remember Auburn and Charles beating Bama twice in 1984 and that being the last time we beat Bama in Tuscaloosa till 1999 (!!!). I remember watching the heartbreaking defeat to Kentucky in the finals of the SEC tournament in 1984 at my grandmother’s house. That was when Kentucky was led by the twin towers of Sam Bowie and Melvin Turpin. I remember Charles Barkley’s last game at Auburn being a loss to Richmond in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

I remember Chuck Person and his patented top-of-the-circle shot. If only, if only Chuck Person had gotten to play with a 3-point line... I remember Person and Auburn beating Bama in OT in the finals of the SEC tournament in 1985. I recorded that game and watched it several more times. I loved watching us beat Wimp Sanderson. We did not do it a whole lot after that. I remember that team beating Kansas in the NCAA tournament and then losing to North Carolina in the Sweet Sixteen.

I remember the unbelievable run to the Elite Eight in 1986. Auburn just kept winning and doing it against big-time teams. They beat Arizona, St. Johns and UNLV before falling to eventual national champ Louisville. I remember the monster regular season game against UNLV IN 1987. I remember that team getting completely hosed in the NCAA tournament against Indiana. I remember the calls going against Indiana starting out and Bobby Knight going on one of his famous tirades. After that the Hoosiers got about 10 straight calls in a row and the game was pretty much over.

I remember watching or listening to John Caylor hit that 3-pointer to beat #1 Kentucky and Rex Chapman in 1988 at Rupp Arena. I remember missing the first HOUR of my Calculus 1 FINAL EXAM watching Chris Morris battle Hersey Hawkins in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 1988. I was lucky I got out of that class with just a “C”…

I remember the bottom falling out in 1989 and Sonny Smith leaving. I remember Auburn starting 0-10 in the SEC and being there with a few hundred other people on a Saturday night when we finally won one against Miss St behind the shooting of Keenan Carpenter. I remember Reggie Gallon, Ronnie Battle, and a host of others as I watched just about every home basketball game from 1990 through 1992. Those were some brutal years and NOBODY can ever accuse me of not supporting our basketball program and my group and I kept coming back out.

I remember seeing Shaq come to Auburn as a freshman and being amazed at his size. I remember his first shot being a rocket off the backboard but could see by his unbelievable athleticism for a guy that big that he was going to be something special. I remember Auburn upsetting LSU and Shaq in the SEC tournament that same year. I remember Auburn and Wesley Person upsetting an Arkansas team that would go to win a national championship in 1995. However the decade between 1988 and 1999 consisted of mediocre to bad basketball and no NCAA tournaments.

Everyone who is any kind of Auburn fan remembers 1999. I remember the excitement just continuing to build as Auburn fans everywhere began to realize that something special was happening. It was an unbelievable team and definitely the last team at Auburn to actually have good players and the right players at each position on the court. You had Doc Robinson at the point, still the best point guard and ball handler I have ever seen at Auburn. You had Scotty Pohlman at the shooting guard knocking them down. BTW is it really that hard to find another Scott Pohlman to sit outside and hit 3-pointers? You had Mamadou N’diaye at center. The last true center we had. You had Chris Porter and all his athleticism at one forward and you had Bryant Smith, the heart and soul of the team, at the other forward.

Doc Robinson’s ball-handling, Scotty Pohlman’s shooting, Mamadou’s shot blocks, Chris Porter’s dunks and Bryant Smith’s defense. It was a once-in-a-lifetime team and will probably always remain Auburn’s best ever basketball team. I remember the Ole Miss game at home late in the season on ESPN where the team played maybe their best game and the crowd was out of their minds. I remember clinching the SEC title against Vandy. That was a special accomplishment. I remember beating Oklahoma St and current ESPN know-it-all Doug Gottlieb in the second round of the NCAA tournament. I remember the crushing defeat to Ohio St in the Sweet Sixteen. However the best part of 1999 was being able to STOMP Bama THREE times in ONE season. I saw Wimp Sanderson do it to us several times so it was awesome to finally do it to them.

I remember the excitement going into the 2000 season but having the sneaking feeling we would miss Bryant Smith. Smith was from my hometown of Huntsville and will always be one of my all-time favorite Auburn basketball players. I remember Auburn being on TV a ton in 2000 and things going pretty well till we lost Chris Porter for dealing with an agent. After that we lost four-in-a-row. The team made a run to the SEC tournament final before falling to Arkansas and then went out to Iowa St in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

I do have one great memory from that season. I got to see the last big win of the Chris Porter era at Auburn. That game was at Vanderbilt on February 16, 2000. Living in Huntsville, Alabama I have gone to see Auburn play Vandy several times in Nashville since it is so close. Anyone who has been to Vanderbilt to see a basketball game knows how weird their gym is. Up to this point I had always had lousy seats and Vandy had always stomped us. This time a friend of my brother had set us up with Vanderbilt scholarship tickets from the doctor she worked for. It was about the best time I ever had at a basketball game. I finally saw us beat those guys up there and we had great seats. However the best part might have been our group crashing the Vanderbilt scholarship halftime concessions (we had tickets for that too). Vanderbilt scholarship donors or people with their tickets could go to a room and get all the free food they wanted. We busted in with all our Auburn gear on and enjoyed as many hot dogs, bags of popcorn and cookies as we could get in. We then of course had to grab a couple for the road. Needless to say the dirty looks coupled with a win in that hell hole made it a night to remember.

The program quickly dropped off after that. There have been few moments to remember other than a run to the Sweet Sixteen led by Marquis Daniels after a mediocre 8-8 SEC season in 2003. The first decade of the 21st century resembles the last decade of the 20th century for Auburn basketball. Other than the 1999 season and a couple of runs here and there it has been 20 years of mediocre to bad basketball on the plains.

Barkley quote of the year

From Jay Tate's HABOTN blog describing Charles Barkley's interview on WJOX in Birmingham...

"Mike Shula -- that was the saddest day of my life when he got fired."

AMEN CHARLES!!!

And this one gets honorable mention Barkley quote of the year...
"I'm always going to be myself. I ain't never gonna be no kiss-ass brother. I'm my own man. I'm not one of these Alabama guys who listens to Finebaum..."

Amen again, sometimes he annoys me, sometimes he infuriates me but sometimes he gets it EXACTLY RIGHT.  Good job Chuck.