No, it was a great season. But starting out 21-1 with a hard schedule is incredible. Auburn looked damn near unbeatable for the first 2/3 of the season.

But they looked very mortal the last 1/3. Just curious as to why people think this is.

I think Auburn’s experience really helped them in the first half of the season. But by game 30 of a season there are no freshmen anymore so experience isn’t as important. Plus everyone is fatigued and there are no secrets about anyone’s game.

I also think they started drinking the rat poison.

Whatever it was, Florida and Houston play tomorrow when it looked certain It would be Auburn and Duke just a few weeks ago.

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Posted by SummerOfGeorge

Member since Jul 2013

104987 posts

Posted on 4/7/25 at 7:38 am to captdalton

quote:
Alabama and Auburn had the top 2 strength of schedule this season.

In their first 22 games they played and went:

Auburn: 10 tournament teams; 21-1

Alabama: 14 tournament teams: 19-3

In their last games they finished:

Auburn: 16 tournament teams, 11-5

Alabama: 15 tournament teams, 9-6

For whatever the reason, that 21-1 start didn’t hold out.

My point was while there was a slight dip in their performance it wasn't very much (as evident by going 11-5 and still being #4 in overall efficiency), and that the league (and then tournament) was so difficult that a team could be a Top 5 team and lose a bunch of games (which was my point about Alabama going 9-6...........and being a top 5 efficiency team).

Auburn through February 5th
- 19-1 (9-0)
- #2 efficiency (#1 off, #9 def)
- #26 eFG%, #48 3pt%

Auburn Feb 6th - end of season
- 11-5 (6-3)
- #4 efficiency (#12 off, #11 def)
- lost to #3 eff Florida (since Feb 6) in final 4
- #102 eFG%, #192 3pt%

Alabama through February 5th
- 16-3 (8-1)
- #6 efficiency (#2 off, #34 def)

Alabama Feb 6th - end of season
- 9-6 (5-4)
- #5 efficiency (#4 off, #35 def)
- lost to #1 eff Duke (since Feb 6) in elite 8

Auburn was roughly 2 pts a game worse the last 2 months of the season than they were the first 3 months, and the main reason is they went from one of the best shooting teams in the country to just "a really solid shooting team".

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