What does Auburn do well?

Two games into the season, we have a little bit of an idea of what Auburn does well. To this point it is mostly what we expected coming in:

• Shoot from 3 - To this point, Auburn is shooting 42.4% from outside. Most of that was from a good first half against Kennesaw State, but the talent is there for this to continue. This is a strength for Frankie Sullivan and Kenny Gabriel. Courtney Denson isn't the worst at it either, and Varez Ward should hit his open looks. Allen Payne has started the year 1 for 4, but I doubt he'll continue to take many shots. AP's value lies elsewhere
• Backcourt pressure - Auburn has a lot of speed. The best way to harness that on the defensive end is to be aggressive, and hope that the speed allows you to recover if an opponent gets past you. This active defense led to several early turnovers that got McNeese State behind the 8-ball early. It worked fairly well against Kennesaw State as well, but Auburn couldn't hold on to the ball themselves.
• Fastbreaks - Auburn's active defense leads to a lot of steal opportunities, and the speed that the Tigers have has allowed them to get out ahead on fastbreaks. If Auburn can continue this, they will be in any game. Converting easy baskets is going to be the best way to make sure that you get the most out of the turnovers you cause.

Coach Barbee has done a great job to this point with getting Auburn into offensive and defensive strategies that fit his personnel. The next thing to see is what happens when Auburn faces at team with equal or better talent. Auburn won't be able to run every team into the ground every night, but hopefully they can turn their positives into several wins this season.

Songs of the post:
1. "Rhiannon" - Fleetwood Mac
2. "Statesboro Blues (Live at Fillmore East)" - Allman Brothers Band
3. "Trial Time" - The Last Mr. Bigg
4. "Long Haired Country Boy" - Charlie Daniels Band
5. "Hey Ya" - Outkast
6. "Anna-Molly" - Incubus

Kennesaw State Review

Auburn 68, Kennesaw State 55



In my preview, I thought that success would be Auburn coming out with the same intensity that they had against McNeese State and putting KSU away early. If that was the only barometer, then this wasn't what Auburn was looking for, but there are still plenty of positives that jump out.

Official Recap
Quotes
Box Score

The Good

• Defense - Auburn held KSU to 32.7% from the field. The Owls had more turnovers than assists. Auburn blocked 5 shots, and the Tigers won the rebounding battle
• Resilience - Auburn didn't play their best. They were sluggish, and they didn't put their opponent away in the second half. They won by 13. For Auburn, that's still a step in the right direction. They lost games like this last year.
• Frankie Sullivan (22-5-2-0-2) - Frankie started out white hot, hitting 4 threes in the first half. He and Chubby were able to give Auburn a threat both inside and out while the rest of the team got their wits about them.

The Not As Good

• 17 Turnovers - The only Auburn player that played and didn't turn the ball over? Josh Wallace. Ward, Sullivan, and Denson all turned it over 3 times.
• Frontcourt Offense - Just before tip-off, Auburn found out that Kennesaw State's best player, Markeith Cummings, would not be playing. Regardless, the Tigers wound up getting a 5 of 12 night from Rob Chubb and 1 of 7 from Allen Payne. Kenny Gabriel turned it over twice and committed 4 fouls. Those three combined to go 4 of 8 from the line, so they didn't make up for it there either. Chubb was still Auburn's #2 scorer, but they're going to need more than a true shooting percentage of 44.4%.
• Free Throw Shooting - It got worse. 12 of 24. This is going to lose Auburn a game if it doesn't get fixed. If Auburn made two-thirds of their attempts, they would have broken 70. Auburn is now 24 of 47 on the year. 51%. Pathetic. There's no other word. This stays here until the Tigers break 66.7%

Auburn now has 11 days until the Nicholls State game on Black Friday. I'm hoping that with the Iron Bowl the next day, there is a big crowd in town. Auburn has played well to start the year. They deserve the attention.

Songs of the Post*:
1. "Come Back Song" - Darius Rucker
2. "Chattahoochee (Extended Mix)" - Alan Jackson
3. "Two People Fell In Love" - Brad Paisley
4. "What Can I Say" - Carrie Underwood featuring Sons of Sylvia
5. "Revelry" - Kings of Leon
6. "Someday" - Sugar Ray
7. "Freak of the Week" - Marvelous 3

*-sometimes this feature doesn't make me look so good...

Kennesaw State Preview

Opponent info: Kennesaw State University Owls - 0-1. Last game, lost to Wisconsin 85-31. Ranked #311 in KenPom.

The Owls return four starters from last year's squad, but that team went 8-23 and finished near the bottom of the A-Sun. The Tigers' backcourt should watch out for Delbert Love, as he had four steals against Wisconsin. Cummings was the leading scorer with 18, but no other Owl managed to get into double figures (which makes sense, seeing as he scored over half of their points).

Kennesaw State didn't have much fun playing the Badgers their last time out. They managed just 31 points, trailed 41-8 at halftime, and shot 10 of 43 from the field. They should shoot much better from the field this time out, but if Auburn can continue the opportunistic play from the McNeese State game, they should control this one.

The most important goal for Auburn is to build on the win over McNeese State. I don't see the Tigers losing this one, but it certainly doesn't need to go down to the wire. They will need to come out up tempo, let Chubby go to work inside, and use superior athleticism to put KSU away early to maintain that momentum. Auburn can't panic if the shots don't fall early. The more important part is staying within the gameplan.


Probable Starters: Auburn - Chubby, Kenny G, AP, Frankie, and Varez. KSU - Markeith Cummings, Aaron Anderson, Brandon Dawson, Delbert Love, Spencer Dixon

Songs of the Post:
1. "Sir Duke" - Stevie Wonder
2. "Two Dozen Roses" - Shenandoah
3. "It's Tricky" - Run DMC
4. "Whenever You Come Around" - Vince Gill
5. "Island in the Sun" - Weezer

McNeese State Review

I guess I shouldn't have been so worried. The Tigers came out and played what I think was the best complete game of the Barbee era. The comeback over Mississippi State last year was great, but this was an excellent performance from start to finish. It was the largest margin of victory, the best shooting percentage, and most points scored in regulation under Barbee.

Official Recap
Quotes
Box Score

The Good

• Six players with 8 points or more: Chubby 21, Ward 14, Kenny G 13, CD 10, and Frankie and Payne each had 8
• Shooting from the field on both ends - Auburn shot 53.2% from the field and held MSU to 35.8%. Auburn also took 9 more shots. MSU's top player, Patrick Richard, was held to 3 of 13 shooting. If Auburn can take 9 more shots and hit a higher percentage of those shots than their opponents this year, they'll do okay.
• Rob Chubb - Chubby put up a 21-7-3-0-2. Three of those rebounds came on the offensive end. He made all 3 of his free throws. Coach Barbee has been very impressed by his off-season work, and tonight was the kind of night Chubby needed to believe in that work.

The Not As Good

• Free Throw Shooting - Again with this? Auburn was 52.2% (12 of 23) for the game, which was lower than their percentage from the floor. Denson was the primary culprit at 2 of 6. Ward wasn't much better at 1 of 4. With as much as these two get to the line, they HAVE to make those shots. It's one thing if guys like Forbes and Kouassi can't hit more than 50%, but Denson and Ward are good ball handlers that will not only get to the line in the meat of games, but they'll also be counted on to make those shots as the game winds down. This has been an issue with Auburn for longer than I'd care to remember
• Fouls - Auburn had 22 of them. The only reason this game stayed under 30 was because MSU hit their foul shots. Last year Auburn fouled too much because they weren't as good on defense. Hopefully there's enough athleticism on this team that it won't be an issue later in the year.
• Uh...there weren't many non-students there. Most observations had more students at the game than everyone else. This is a good/bad thing though. It's great that so many students went, but couldn't Montgomery people have driven 1 hour on a Friday night, when football is on the road for the weekend, to support the boys? Hopefully they're reading the paper this morning and realize that this team might not be too bad.

 This one was a lot of fun. MSU is a veteran team with the Southland Conference's pre-season player of the year. Auburn never trailed and led by more than 20 for most of the second half. Hopefully Auburn can carry some confidence forward into Monday's game.

Songs of the Post: Nothing, iTunes was updating while I wrote this morning. Curses.

McNeese State Preview

NOTE: Eventually, we'll get around to a better preview, but for now I need to make sure I get a decent preview of the opener.

The Tigers open the second season of the Tony Barbee era with McNeese State tonight. The Cowboys are the defending Southland Conference champs (regular season) and made the NIT last year. They start 3 juniors and 2 seniors.  Will Brown and Rudy Turner are 6'9" cousins and former transfers that could be very tough for Auburn to defend. MSU did lose some starters off of last year's team, but there is still a good veteran presence there.  This is not the easiest of openers for an Auburn team that we don't know much about.

Probably starters - Auburn*: Chubby, Kenny G, CD, Frankie, and Varez. MSU: Rudy Turner, Will Brown, Patrick Richard, Jeremie Mitchell, Dontae Cannon

Josh Langford and Tony Neysmith are probably still on ice for this one.  Auburn will have to defend well inside, box out the MSU big bodies, and work for open jumpers on the perimeter in order to win.

Songs of the Post:
1. "Crossroads" - Cream
2. "Indestructible"  - Disturbed

*-That's Chubb, Gabriel, Denson, Sullivan, and Ward

Welcome

Welcome to Barbee World!

Auburn University has a great overall athletic program. There have been national championships, SEC championships, All-Americans, legends, leaders, and incredible moments in several sports.

And then there's Auburn Men's Basketball. Auburn basketball has managed 2 regular season SEC Championships in the over 75 year history of the conference. There have been only 8 NCAA Tournament appearances in over 100 years. Auburn University reacted to dwindling attendance at basketball games by building a new arena...with a capacity of over 3000 less than the previous arena.

And yet, I feel that there needs to be a home for Auburn basketball on the web. There are Auburn blogs for football (actually that's pretty much all of them), baseball (http://auppl.blogspot.com/), pop culture (http://www.thewareaglereader.com/), and general Auburn news and opinions (http://www.trackemtigers.com/). After all that, basketball seems like an afterthought. And if you've been looking at attendance numbers for the last few years, you would know that's not just an Internet thing. Somebody out there needs to step out for the Tigers of the hardwood. That is what led me down this path.

On this blog, I hope to give you previews of games to come, reviews of games that have been, why things worked and why things didn't from a statistical perspective as well as an emotional one, and maybe some humor now and then. I have tried blogging before (the now defunct Section 13, Row 42, Seat 21), but I didn't have a clear purpose. If I don't keep this one up, it will be just on my own laziness...and desire to play NCAA 12 and Call of Duty: MW3

First gimmick - every post will end with whatever songs I was listening to while I wrote out the post. Maybe it will give you some insight as to why I wrote the way I did. Maybe you'll discover music you hadn't heard of. Maybe you'll just mock my horrible taste. Hopefully it helps me keep from taking things too seriously.

Songs of the Post:
1. "Lose Yourself" - Eminem
2. "Give Me Something" - Scars on 45
3. "Gravity" - John Mayer
4. "I Run to You" - Lady Antebellum
5. "Tighten Up" - The Black Keys