quote:

I'm more skeptical of Auburn than most because I don't think bad teams can automatically turn it on and become good with one year of experience, no matter how talented

I don't think we were all that bad. We lost a few close games and had some epic collapses to blow some big leads but outside of Florida, USC, A&M and Purdue we were in a position to win every game at the under 8 mark. Lack of leadership and poor defense cost us at winning time. I think that can be directly attributed to depending on 4 fr and a so. It's the same reason I'm a little less high on Alabama and Mizzou as others. You just don't know how young players are going to react in those situations until they go through them. We are a year older so I'm hoping most of those issues are solved but until they toss it up it's all just speculation.

ETA: What happened in the AU/UA games last year will have 0 effect on this year's teams.

This post was edited on 10/20/17 at 11:29 am

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Posted by GatorsGators

Member since Oct 2012

13454 posts

Posted on 10/20/17 at 11:34 am to marshallcotiger

Auburn was 82nd in KenPom and 68th in luck (which is essentially a rating of your record in close games) so I'm not really sure I buy that. I don't deny that Auburn has a lot of offensive talents, but teams as bad defensively as they were are going to be prone to losing leads.

I'd differentiate Bama from Mizzou in that Bama was solid last year and returns most of that team. Dazon Ingram, Braxton Key, and Donta' Hall are all quality SEC players. Them going from a 10-8 SEC team to a 12-6 SEC team isn't a big jump. They just need to not suck in non-conference this year.

This post was edited on 10/20/17 at 11:38 am

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Posted by Uncle Gunnysack