Auburn Basketball Wins the Legends Classic

Auburn travelled to the Big Apple to take on Notre Dame and St Bonaventure in the annual Legends Classic. The Tigers beat each team convincingly to bring home the trophy and kick off the season. This was a good opportunity for this new team to get game reps and figure some things out before we get to the heat of our non-conference schedule. I was satisfied with our performances, but don't be mistaken, both of these teams were teams that we were supposed to blow out. These games won't be resume builders, but they hopefully helped us gel so that we can win some of those resume builders down the road.

I jotted down some notes during these two matchups that I will share with you...

-Auburn has always played very physical defense. Bruce likes his guys to pressure the ball and create a sense of havoc on that end of the floor. I'm perfectly okay with this. What I'm NOT okay with is bailing teams out with fouls and ruining a good defensive possession. Auburn has struggled with that so far this year, and I don't think we can really blame it on the referees calling a tight game. We have too many guys reaching in trying to get a steal rather than just staying in front of their guy and forcing a tough shot. Johni does it a lot, Chaney Johnson does it a lot, KD Johnson does it a lot. I've seen multiple instances where we will have a team in a state of absolute disarray during a possession, but we will foul them and allow them to reset. I want to see our guys focus more on staying in front of their guy rather than gambling for steals.

-We gave up a lot of offensive rebounds over the course of this tournament. 19 to Notre Dame on Thursday, and 14 to St Bonaventure on Friday. If we don't start sending more guys to the rim to rebound, these numbers will be amplified once we start playing teams as athletic or even more athletic than we are. One particular team that is very good at this aspect of the game is Alabama. After every shot that their opponent puts up, they will have at least four guys boxing out and looking to rebound. I want to see Auburn do the same thing. It is frustrating when we give up an offensive rebound and putback because we have guys leaking out trying to get an easy bucket. I would much rather have all five guys at the rim looking to rebound. We can't afford to give up this many extra possessions to good teams.

-In both of these games, there were times where we had leads of 20+ points and it looked like we were going to run away with it. Instead, we started making lazy passes, turning the ball over, and taking ill-advised shots. We have struggled with giving up leads these past few years. We were up ten at the half over Houston in the round of 32 last year, and we ended up losing by 17. When we get these leads, we have to stop getting comfortable. Getting comfortable leads to getting lazy, and getting lazy leads to making stupid mistakes. When you have a team on the ropes, that is the time to crank up the intensity and step on their throats. Everyone knows the famous saying, "kick a dog while he's down." I want to see us get a big lead and run with it for once. We have to stop letting teams off the hook when we have them down.

-I want to see Tre Donaldson and Aden Holloway get some run together. Obviously, they won't be able to stay on the floor together long, because we would then have to rest both of our PG's at once. I do think that Tre could really benefit in an off-ball role for a few minutes a game though. He has shot the ball very well recently, including a few big-time shooting performances in the tournament. He is very efficient in catch-and-shoot scenarios. If he can play off ball while Aden is running point, I think he could secure a few extra points per game. This combo wouldn't effect us defensively either, because Donaldson's stout frame will allow him to check even the bigger two-guards across the league.

-Johni Broome is officially becoming a defensive liability. He is being targeted by opponents in the post, and for good reason. He gambles, and frankly, he is just slow. That is not a good combination. If you are going to gamble for steals and blocks, you have to be quick so that you can recover. He is not quick, so he is going to have to be more disciplined. If we could somehow combine Johni's offensive ability with Dylan Cardwell's defensive ability and athleticism, we would have the best big man in the country.

-Speaking of Dylan Cardwell, how about him going 6/6 from the line against St Bonaventure?? If he can consistently make free throws, he will be much more serviceable on the offensive end. Some of those free throws were big the other night when trying to withstand a St Bonaventure run.

-I still want to see both Jaylin Williams and Denver Jones be more aggressive on the offensive end. Denver was 3/3 from three-point range against St Bonaventure. I want to see him look to score more. That, however, does not mean that I want him to take contested shots. I think if he can sustain some success from outside, he can begin using shot fakes to get defenders out of guarding position so that he can get to the rim some. As for Jaylin, he just has to look to score when he catches the ball. He scored 11 in both games of the Legends Classic. Our chances of winning increase exponentially when he is aggressive and in double figures.

-The end of the first half of the St Bonaventure game was one of the best closes to a half I've seen in a long time. Chad Baker-Mazara three, Jaylin Williams steal, Jaylin Williams windmill dunk, defesnsive stop, Denver Jones three. I had to rewatch it three or four times. It was absolutely gorgeous.

This tournament was a great opportunity to rebuild some confidence after a tough loss to Baylor to open the year. I think this team has showed signs of potential greatness. If we can continue to gel and get some of the x-factors going, we are going to win a lot of games this year.

We've got Alabama A&M tomorrow night. Let's dominate and get ready to take on a solid Virginia Tech team next Wednesday.