Auburn Tigers: Not just for Siegfried and Roy
Saturday, December 20 2008 by Ben
Do you hate it when writers quote themselves? I do.
Sometimes, as a blogger, you’ve just got to so that all the people out there don’t think you’re some kook writing from your mother’s basement.
The Wahoos are a good portion through their non-conference schedule and while it hasn’t been great, it hasn’t been awful either. Actually, it’s just about met my expectations. For example, that loss to Liberty?
There's five in-state opponents that come to the 'ville: VMI, Radford, Liberty, Longwood, and Hampton. These are all teams that Virginia ought to beat handily…If they come out of those games unscathed, that's good. Even one loss wouldn't be horrible, remember, this is a young team that lacks an experienced point guard.
Right now, we’re 3-1 and the squad will probably beat Hampton, too. Not too bad. Liberty hasn’t been tearing it up, but they’ve done nothing to embarrass themselves, either.
Later in that column, I also noted that an 0-4 record versus Minnesota, Syracuse, Auburn, and Xavier wouldn’t necessarily spell doom for the Wahoos this year. How are we doing there? Well, 0-2, but both games were away at tough venues and they were both close.
Auburn comes to town at 4PM EST. I say Virginia’s due for big home win.
What do we know about the Auburn Tigers? They’re 5-4 on the year with some tough losses and few good wins. They’ve lost to Mercer, Northern Iowa, and Dayton. I tell my wife that when they say “tough” on television that it means “bad.” (“Tough shots” are almost always bad shots.)
The squad is mediocre on both ends: They give up 92.1 points per 100 possessions (94th in the country) and score 101.2 points per 100 possessions (thanks Ken!). So, this is a good team for Virginia to figure out where the leaks are. If Auburn gets that scoring figure up above 110, it’s going to be a long, long year. Hopefully, the break and the big win against Longwood has shored up Virginia’s offensive and defensive rotations.
Auburn doesn’t have any one “big name scorer” as four players on the team average double figures in points. Their best scorer is Senior Korvotney Barber, who’s averaging 13 points per game. He’s a 6-7, 225 lb high percentage scorer, shooting 61 percent from the field.
The game will be broadcast on FSN.
2 comment(s) and 0 trackback(s)
The first half killed them. The Cavs played great in the second half, but they came out very lethargic, and it really costed them in the end. I thought they defense was very good, even though they were out rebounded. I hope they can shoot better than 36% in the future. They aren't going to win that way.
That was perhaps the most boring first half of basketball I've seen and one of the most entertaining final 10 minutes i've seen in a while.
Sylven continues to be our only consistent scorer, but he had some trouble from the line. He also got mugged several times going inside with no whistle, but that's another issue.
Assane was definitely the bright spot. He is so energetic and he actually got to stay in the game and make a difference tonight. He was "only" credited with four blocks I believe, but he interfered with a lot more shots than that. He missed his first dunk, but it was good to see him simply turn and try to throw it down. He then turned around and threw one down that actually went in just a couple minutes later. I have no doubt he's going to be entertaining to watch over the next 3.5 years.
Can someone please tell me why Calvin Baker continues to be our point guard during long stretches of the game? His decision-making has simply been sub-part. I love the heart this kid has, but he doesn't distribute the ball like we need when we have other scorers on the floor. He does seem to do a little better starting out at the 2 and letting Sammy get the ball to him.
I took a bunch of pictures from my seats in the rafters - I'll post them later.