Auburn blew another early lead in a conference road game, watching an 11-point halftime advantage turn into an 82-74 loss to Vanderbilt at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville this afternoon.
The blog was not there, but when our television broadcast worked, we watched it on TV.
The Tigers (10-10) dropped to 1-4 in the SEC. Vanderbilt (15-3, 4-0) has won nine straight.
Like the Tennessee game earlier this month, Auburn jumped to a big advantage early, leading by as many as 16 in the first half and going into halftime up 43-32.
But Vanderbilt outscored Auburn 50-31 in the second half. Jeffery Taylor led a balanced Commodores attack with 18 points.
Lucas Hargrove led Auburn with 19 points and 10 rebounds. DeWayne Reed scored 16 points and Frankie Sullivan 14.
The Tigers return home for a game Thursday against Ole Miss at 9 p.m.. ET.
6 comments:
AB,
Can you tell us ( in one paragraph or less ) why we struggle to win @ basketball?
Let's see if I can do this:
Umm ... talent.
That pretty well sums it up. Anybody in the area who is a premier basketball talent doesn't come to Auburn. Whether that's because of the arena situation or Lebo's in ability to attract top recruits, it's true.
And unless you're a system coach who can win with certain types of solid but not spectacular players -- think Bo Ryan at Wisconsin or, so far, Tony Bennett at Washington State and Virginia -- talent goes a long way in college basketball.
There's a reason why North Carolina is always good. It always gets the best players. Plain and simple.
Thanks. That means coaching is not so mch an issue then.
Coaching is an issue as it's the head coach's job to recruit talent. I think Auburn has one player, Frankie Sullivan, that other SEC teams look at and say "I'd like to have him".
You need six or seven players they'd like to have if you expect to win.
PS: I don't buy the arena excuse. If kids want to play for a coach or a certain program, they'll come. If they don't, the Taj Mahal won't bring 'em in.
Followup: I just remembered a quote from John Wooden, it's in his book "They Call Me Coach":
"Nobody can win consistently without superior talent. Some can't win with it, but nobody can win without it."
I think Lebo gets everything out of the players he's got. The problem, as Andy said, is the low talent level. After six years here it's Lebo's responsibility to have SEC quality players on the Auburn team. He has failed in that area.
Everybody is absolutely correct. The talent gap ultimately comes back to Lebo. All of these players are his. There are really no excuses.
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