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OT: AUBURN BASKETBALL

From tbb

So I'm lucky enough to work with the Bball team as they use our technology to track player load through impacts and dynamic movements. Here's a little tidbit from today's practice...

Horace Spencer has elevated his game big time. He has put in the work on the court and in the weight room. When I got to the arena to set up 45 min before practice he was already there putting up shots and during practice he is playing with a different energy and his game has improved noticeably.

Samir Doughtry will be a nice addition. Has good range from the outside and knocked down some nice shots today. I think he will be better offensively than Davion Mitchell last year but not as good defensively quite yet.

Transfer Jamal Johnson looked good but needs a year in the weight room in my opinion.

Malik Dunbar will step his game up this year. He is an electric athlete who gives 100% at all times. He's the type of guy you need around your program. He was a lot more confident on offense and defense today.

Austin Wiley body has completely changed since getting on campus. He dominated at times today and was a true leader on the floor. He will average 15 and 10 this year and will make us very tough to defend. SEC player of the year is my prediction here.

Bryce Brown you can tell is a senior and leads this team. They look up to him and his energy was contagious today. He's very focused and ready to be the GUY this year.

Jared Harper was a lot more vocal than I remember from other practices I've attended. You can tell he has accepted the role of floor general. He's the straw that stirs the drink. We cannot afford him to go down with injury as he's the man that makes this thing go.

Danjel did not practice so no info here. He came at the end for weights so had a class or something else that conflicted today.

I attended several practices last summer and predicted the team would be special. This year's team has that same feel but seems to WANT more and with the addition of McCormick they have a chance to be really good. This is a legit top 10 team right now. They have the players and coaching but as we know a team has to gel as a TEAM to become the real deal. I say we win the SEC back to back and make a serious run at the NCAA this year. Of course my orange and blue glasses are on but its hard not be confident about this squad.

WDE!
 
Nice info.

Ole Cobbie brings back some memories. Called him a simpleton one time and he whined about it for two weeks and I’m fairly sure he reported it to Tate. It was right around the time Tate started saying I was being too mean to folks..

Cobbie seems to have some legit connections.i remember him calling Pappoe to Auburn long before anyone esle did
 
I see some BBall recruits are now announcing if they're reclassifying. Wonder if Akingbola is about to announce or if Bruce and Co are asking him to hold off
 
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Yeah. He needs to show much improvement from 2 years ago. Especially on defense. I believe he will be better but I just don’t know how much until we actually see him play.
I have no doubt he’ll be better and maybe even really good, but getting drafted is pretty tough
 
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I really think the SEC has 3 Final Four caliber teams. And 3-4 other top 20 teams. Could be a historic season for the SEC. One of Auburn, Kentucky, Tennessee could win the whole thing. Wouldn't surprise me a bit. You guys getting Wiley and Danjel back, Kentucky getting Travis and Hagans, Tennessee returns everyone. Mississippi State, LSU, Vandy, Mizzou could all make noise.
 
I really think the SEC has 3 Final Four caliber teams. And 3-4 other top 20 teams. Could be a historic season for the SEC. One of Auburn, Kentucky, Tennessee could win the whole thing. Wouldn't surprise me a bit. You guys getting Wiley and Danjel back, Kentucky getting Travis and Hagans, Tennessee returns everyone. Mississippi State, LSU, Vandy, Mizzou could all make noise.
I'm excited about this year's squad but it's gonna take more than talent to make this thing work. Hopefully all the personalities continue to gel and we keep boog'n...still don't see this as a final 4 squad and wont until they show they have the maturity to not fade late Feb and March.
 
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I'm excited about this year's squad but it's gonna take more than talent to make this thing work. Hopefully all the personalities continue to gel and we keep boog'n...still don't see this as a final 4 squad and wont until they show they have the maturity to not fade late Feb and March.

Hopefully we won't be down three of our best players this season in late Feb and all of March
 
I'm excited about this year's squad but it's gonna take more than talent to make this thing work. Hopefully all the personalities continue to gel and we keep boog'n...still don't see this as a final 4 squad and wont until they show they have the maturity to not fade late Feb and March.
Certainly. You never how a team will mesh, but I think Bruce can make that happen. Crazy as it sounds, I think it was addition by subtraction when Heron left. I believe Auburn has the pieces. And Bruce usually handles egos and attitudes pretty well.
 
I've been meaning to post some info on the team for a while now and finally found the time. Pretty much everything I've heard is good news. We've looked "scary good" at times.

Jared is on another level. He has a chance to be the best player in the conference next year. His relationship with Bryce on the court is amazing. Those guys play so well together. They will be fun to watch.

Austin is a monster. Working on free throws non stop and has improved big time.

Horace has been the surprise of the summer. He's working at the 4 and has been impressive. He's out working everybody. He has been working on a 3 point shot and been hitting them pretty consistently. Don't be surprised to see him take and knock some down this year.

There is some concern with Chuma right now. He seems to be struggling for whatever reason. Just being lazy and seems uninterested at times. Hopefully he snaps out of it soon. He was real close with Davion and I think losing him has possibly had an effect on him. I'm not too worried about it right now as there is still plenty of time before the season but Horace is pushing hard for that starting 4 spot. While I love Horace, we really need Chuma to step up.

Same old Malik as last year. Just trying to do way too much and play street ball at times. They are trying hard to get him to understand his role without damaging his high energy and the leadership he brings. He works extremely hard just loses his mind at times with the ball in his hands.

Don't really know much about the new pg other than that he's a body and the best option we had. Really don't need him to do much but play tough defense and not turn the ball over for 8-10 minutes a game.

As far as recruiting goes it's not looking like Stretch will reclassify. I think we want him to but his grades aren't there to graduate early. Not a huge deal but it would be nice to have him on campus while we recruit his teammates. The thought is that we lead for both of his high school and AAU teammates Okoro and Sharife Cooper. Cooper is a 2020 PG. The hope is if we can land him we would push for him to graduate early and backup Jared for a year if Jared were to stay for his senior season. I'm sure there are other guys we are recruiting hard but those 2 I know we want badly and we have a good shot to get both right now.
 
There is some concern with Chuma right now. He seems to be struggling for whatever reason. Just being lazy and seems uninterested at times. Hopefully he snaps out of it soon. He was real close with Davion and I think losing him has possibly had an effect on him. I'm not too worried about it right now as there is still plenty of time before the season but Horace is pushing hard for that starting 4 spot. While I love Horace, we really need Chuma to step up.

Same old Malik as last year. Just trying to do way too much and play street ball at times. They are trying hard to get him to understand his role without damaging his high energy and the leadership he brings. He works extremely hard just loses his mind at times with the ball in his hands.
this breaks my heart
 
Danjel is a pretty good player when the ball isn't in his hands. Staph is awful without the ball. The two that couldn't play together are Jared and Staph. They basically came to hate each other and that's a big reason Staph left.
wow...that explains a lot, especially post season
 
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I've been meaning to post some info on the team for a while now and finally found the time. Pretty much everything I've heard is good news. We've looked "scary good" at times.

Jared is on another level. He has a chance to be the best player in the conference next year. His relationship with Bryce on the court is amazing. Those guys play so well together. They will be fun to watch.

Austin is a monster. Working on free throws non stop and has improved big time.

Horace has been the surprise of the summer. He's working at the 4 and has been impressive. He's out working everybody. He has been working on a 3 point shot and been hitting them pretty consistently. Don't be surprised to see him take and knock some down this year.

There is some concern with Chuma right now. He seems to be struggling for whatever reason. Just being lazy and seems uninterested at times. Hopefully he snaps out of it soon. He was real close with Davion and I think losing him has possibly had an effect on him. I'm not too worried about it right now as there is still plenty of time before the season but Horace is pushing hard for that starting 4 spot. While I love Horace, we really need Chuma to step up.

Same old Malik as last year. Just trying to do way too much and play street ball at times. They are trying hard to get him to understand his role without damaging his high energy and the leadership he brings. He works extremely hard just loses his mind at times with the ball in his hands.

Don't really know much about the new pg other than that he's a body and the best option we had. Really don't need him to do much but play tough defense and not turn the ball over for 8-10 minutes a game.

As far as recruiting goes it's not looking like Stretch will reclassify. I think we want him to but his grades aren't there to graduate early. Not a huge deal but it would be nice to have him on campus while we recruit his teammates. The thought is that we lead for both of his high school and AAU teammates Okoro and Sharife Cooper. Cooper is a 2020 PG. The hope is if we can land him we would push for him to graduate early and backup Jared for a year if Jared were to stay for his senior season. I'm sure there are other guys we are recruiting hard but those 2 I know we want badly and we have a good shot to get both right now.

Thanks for the info. Just watching some of Chuma’s HS highlights and his play last year, I feel like you could see some of that lackadaisical attitude at times. Hopefully when the season gets closer, it gets him in gear, but I’m not surprised to hear that about him. He seems really carefree, almost aloof at times. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but he seems like one who isn’t the serious grinder all the time but shows up on game day ready. The downside to that is he has areas he needs to improve and someone else is outworking him at his position.
 
Thanks for the info. Just watching some of Chuma’s HS highlights and his play last year, I feel like you could see some of that lackadaisical attitude at times. Hopefully when the season gets closer, it gets him in gear, but I’m not surprised to hear that about him. He seems really carefree, almost aloof at times. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but he seems like one who isn’t the serious grinder all the time but shows up on game day ready. The downside to that is he has areas he needs to improve and someone else is outworking him at his position.
Absolutely. Last summer when he first got on campus I heard the same thing as I'm hearing now. He looks goofy and slow as hell as it is and when he first got here he was playing terrible. That's one reason I'm not too concerned right now but like you said he has some areas he needs to improve. He'll never be real flashy and we don't need him to be but the work ethic concerns me.
 
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