re: 2022-23 Auburn basketball season thread- 21-13 (10-9) Season over

Yeah but it's weird that they have been awful for 2 straight years against weak nonconference schedules and good against the SEC. Hurts all of us in the league. They went 8-5 in nonconference with 2 Q4 L's and their best win was a Q3

idk I hate to be negative but was the league really that good last year or this year? Other than Arkansas the SEC had a poor showing in March.

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I think the SEC was really good last year it just kinda fluked out in the tourney. Seems a bit down this year.

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Yeah, I think people really discount how much matchups matter in the tournament. Having killer guards who are hot at the right time usually carries teams. None of our top SEC teams last year outside of Arky had solid, veteran guard play.

And Wendell, KD, and Jasper can't a handle big athletic guards worth a crap defensively, hence we struggle against teams like Miami, A&M, etc.

Kessler had 7 points, 18 rebounds, and 7 blocks last night in the first game after the break.

Not included in the box score:
-The first play of the game they drew up a play for Kessler to shoot a 3 from the corner. He knocked it down and is now shooting 100% from 3 in his NBA career.
-He hit the game tying bucket with 4 seconds left to force OT
-He blocked a shot at the buzzer to force OT

What a fun rookie season he is having..

Agree. I honestly thought that he would never be successful in the NBA due to his lack of shooting ability.

I thought he would be about what Cardwell is in college. A solid rim protector who could have a nice career off the bench and could be a nice piece on good teams.

He's already projecting well past that.

Auburn is the free team of the week on evanmiya.com (paid hoops metric website)..
a note I found interesting:

Wendell Green's most effectively paired teammate is Lior Berman and it isn't even close. Team margin with those two playing together is +28.5. His next closest is with Zep at +19.5. Makes sense because Lior gives him a lot more space on offense to operate and Zep covers up some of his defensive weakness. Only +11.8 when KD is in at the 2 and Flanigan in at the 3 is +11.9.

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went to the UGA game in Athens last season and I got a chance to watch Kessler warm up.

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Yeah, Walker was killing threes in warmups when I was at the Murray state game last year as well. It always surprised me he wasn't able to hit them a bit better in games given how he drilled them in practice. Especially since he would be taking wide open ones in games as well.

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Game pressure is a different animal psychologically..

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1000% You’ll see guys even at small high schools they seemingly don’t miss from the 3 in shootarounds. When you’ve gotta put one up quick with a guy sprinting at you it’s a totally different animal.

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Unfortunately A&M has a pretty good coach.

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you mean the same coach that signed a top recruiting class then finished last in the West?