re: #tAuburnBasketball Thread

Kuminga officially going to the G-League

we are a who's who in basketball now. Bruce is known and his teams produce. We would have done a sweet 16 prob in the tourney this year. If we got some luck maybe more.

If we keep being in the top 5 for everyone that is an awesome player we will continue to land the really good recruits that can't go to Gleague but don't want to go to the bluebloods. We may even steal some blueblood destined players.

We get 5-10 years of this at Bruce's current level then we are siting nice.

FWIW A couple consistent insiders from the bunker says 2021 4* SG Nisine "Wooga" Poplar has become a major priority

highlights

Basketball players having fun:

Little exercise on a summer day

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I really like it.

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try this

I wouldn’t get my hopes up too much this upcoming year. We should be solid, but I don’t see us competing for a conference championship. Bama and LSU should both be very good. Not sure on Arkansas yet.

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NCAA's confidence in college basketball is at a 'high level'
By Riley Gates 18 minutes ago

The 2020 NCAA Tournament was among the first sporting events canceled or postponed by the coronavirus pandemic. The tournament was called off in March and since then, college basketball fans have been craved for action on the hardwood.

But the future of the 2020-21 season is somewhat in question. The pandemic has already altered the schedules for the Power Five conferences in college football, as most conferences are moving to a conference-only schedule and delaying the start of the season. That is a move that has many questioning the fate of the college basketball season this November.

As of now, though, there is no reason to be concerned about the season’s future. In an interview with NCAA digital reporter Andy Katz, NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt said the season is still scheduled to be started and played on time.

“In college basketball, we are still planning on starting the season, right now, on schedule on November 10,” Gavitt said. “We have plans across the country through our schools and conferences to bring students back to campus safely, just this month in August and in early September. Many players have been on campus for weeks now, training on campus in a very safe way and have been very happy to back playing the game they love with their coaches. So, we’ve got a high level of confidence.”

“...I think at this point we’re probably looking at some time in September, having to make decisions about whether we stick with the plan to start on Nov. 10 or consider other alternatives.”

November is still a while away, though, and many things could change on the schedule. One of the potential moves, according to ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi, would be college basketball adopting the conference-only schedule like football has. This would eliminate teams being able to, “pad their overall win-loss totals with cushy guarantee games,” according to Lunardi. But a smaller schedule wouldn’t allow for many slipups.

With a conference-only schedule, Lunardi said that it would increase pressure on some teams, likely those that aren’t near locks for the NCAA Tournament every year, to not record bad losses. Those bad losses could help keep a team out of the tournament in March.

While there are possibilities of changes out there, though, nothing has been altered yet. And there is currently no plan in place to do so.

“As I’ve said before, as long as basketball is being placed safely anywhere in the world this season, we’ll be playing NCAA college basketball as well, both regular season and certainly the tournament 2021,” Gavitt said. “We’ve got all sorts of plans and alternatives that we’re looking at, in order to be able to do that in a safe and responsible way. But a high level of confidence that it’s going to be, while different, a great experience playing college basketball again for those guys that want to come back to school, finish their education and have the great college basketball experience.”

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Bama and LSU should both be very good

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I'd bet on Tennessee winning the league this year.

They'd be dangerous just returning Pons, Fulkerson, Vescovi and James from their starting lineup. TN though is also adding two 5* top 20 guys, another top 75 along w Oregon transfer Victor Bailey who was solid for good Oregom teams.

Barnes is a good coach, they have good top talent and should have a talented / deep rotation too

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but I think he’s a better recruiter than coach

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He has a track record of developing players as well. He's won a lot of games with teams without talent as well

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I can think of a ton of coaches, who could go a lot deeper in the postseason

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No argument from me that Barnes is a subpar tournament coach. I just don't think that should be the only metric to judge a coach, Barnes this year will reach 700 wins while coaching an ACC/B12/SEC program despite never coaching at a top bball program. That's the sign of a good coach


Just for fun though, for the 10 seasons from '02-03 seasons to '11-12 seasons Rick Barnes made more Elite 8s than Coach K at Duke

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Bruce being one of them.

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People forget but Bruce was not considered a good tournament coach until the F4 team at AU. He had lost either RD1 or to a lower seed in 5/7 NCAATs at TN/AU.


That's not a dig at Bruce but more that deep tournament runs aren't always best measuring stick for a good coach