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Saturday, February 21, 2009

Men's hoops: LSU 79, Auburn 72

Didn't get to go to this one in Baton Rouge so I followed it online like I imagine most of you did. Not a bad effort by Auburn, but it wasn't enough.

What does this mean big picture? Well, instead of being tied for second place in the SEC West and having the inside track at the No. 2 seed out of the West in the SEC tournament, the Tigers (17-10, 6-6 SEC) are now tied for third with Ole Miss and would be the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament if it were to begin today.

Plus, Auburn missed out on an opportunity to get a marquee win on the road, something severely lacking on its current resume. And yes, that's going to come into play for an NIT bid in the near future (forget the NCAA folks, it ain't happening unless the Tigers win the SEC tournament and get the automatic bid).

Some numbers of note from the LSU game:
  • Rasheem Barrett scored one point on 0-for-1 shooting in 15 minutes. Can't win if he has a game like that.
  • DeWayne Reed scored 16 points but went 6-for-20 from the field. Can't win if he's that inefficient from the floor.
  • Korvotney Barber finished with 19 points but only five rebounds. Auburn as a team had 24 rebounds. LSU had 38. Can't get overwhlemed on the boards like that.
  • And if you want to see the biggest disparity between an NCAA tournament-bound team and an NIT hopeful, it's at the free throw line. LSU was 21-for-22. Auburn was 7-for-13. Ballgame.
  • And still, Auburn was close at the end. This team definitely has potential if it can win enough games in the next couple weeks to make the NIT. It's a matter of making it there now. I think if the Tigers get to 20 wins -- and keep in mind they'll be competing for a berth directly against Mississippi State and Ole Miss, two teams still on their schedule -- that they have a good shot of getting in.

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