Track Basketball & More

photo courtesy of:  MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER

Auburn Track & Field competed in the NCAA Indoor Championships, and did so rather well. 
The Men finished 8th and the Women inside the Top 20. Read more about the competition HERE.

Of course the big news centers around Auburn Basketball, as it starts practices in San Diego, CA in preparation for the NCAA Tournament. 

Coach Bruce Pearl had the team go through some "more physical" practices this past week. "We weren't playing good enough to advance....Tuesday's practice should fix that" Pearl told the media. 

Auburn Baseball continues a hot streak as they put 12 runs on the scoreboard against Georgia Tech Tuesday evening at PLainsman Park. The 14th ranked Auburn Baseball Tigers improved their season record to 16-1.

Auburn Softball turned things around against Southern Miss this past weekend. After dropping the series against LSU last week, Coach Mickey Dean and the ladies, righted the ship with a double header, winning the first game 9-2 and then shutting out the Golden Eagles 5-0 in the nightcap. It was the 17th shutout of the season for the 10th ranked Tigers who improved to 25-5.

The 18th ranked Auburn Women's Tennis team continues firing on all cylinders. Coach Lauren Spencer's squad defeated Ole Miss and Alabama A and M this past weekend to improve to 15-5. 

WAR EAGLE!

Auburn Makes History Again!

Auburn coach Bruce Pearl. photo courtesy of OANews

Tuesday the SEC and its coaches announced the post season ALL-SEC TEAM. To the shock of many, and the ire of most Auburn fans, history was both made, and ignored. 

For the first time in the history of All Conference Team nominations, not one first place team player made the first team selection.

**“I’m disappointed for the first time since …1956 was when they started putting on first- and second-team All-SEC (teams) and there’s never been a regular season champion that didn’t have a player on the first-team until this year,” Pearl said Tuesday afternoon in a media conference.

From where I sit this Wednesday morning, just hours away from the start of the SEC Basketball Tournament, I can't help but wonder, why?

Why would the coaches break tradition? Why is this Auburn team being shunned? Even if the other coaches hold past grievances against Bruce Pearl, why vote against his players too?

It seems to me that just earning your way onto lists for postseason accolades is not enough. The voters, in this case SEC coaches, have to make some sort of statement with their vote, instead of remaining neutral. 

The AP seemingly understands that a conference can't have a first place team without at least one player being selected as All-Conference first team. 

***"Auburn’s Bryce Brown and Arkansas’ Daryl Macon joined Maten, Williams and Sexton as first-team all-SEC selections.

The second team includes Auburn teammates Jared Harper and Mustapha Heron, Arkansas’ Jaylen Barford, Florida’s Chris Chiozza and Missouri’s Kassius Robertson."

WAR EAGLE!

**- From the Montgomery Advertiser
***- From the Washington Post

Tigers Complete Championship Season!

Auburn Basketball: 2018 SEC Champions!

That feels very good to say and type. For this team, after so much turmoil and adversity, to play its way to the championship title of the SEC regular season, is something I pray I never forget.

Without going into all this team has overcome, watching them draw closer together and fight for each other was sheer joy. 

Thank you Coach Pearl. Thank you coaching staff and all those behind the scenes for all you've done. Most of all, a large THANK YOU to all the players. Every single one of you. 

The SEC Tournament starts Wednesday. The Championship game will be Sunday. Below are the times, and dates of each game via Sporting News.

2018 SEC Tournament bracket, schedule

First round: Wednesday, March 7

No. 12 Georgia vs. No. 13 Vanderbilt, 7 p.m. SEC Network

No. 11 South Carolina vs. No. 14 Ole Miss, 9:25 p.m. SEC Network

Second round: Thursday, March 8

No. 8 Texas A&M vs. No. 9 Alabama, 1 p.m., SEC Network

No. 5 Missouri vs. No. 12/13, 3:25 p.m., SEC Network

No. 7 Mississippi State vs. No. 10 LSU, 7 p.m., SEC Network

No. 6 Arkansas vs. No. 11/14, 9:25 p.m., SEC Network

Quarterfinals: Friday, March 9

No. 1 Auburn vs. No. 8/9, 1 p.m., ESPN

No. 4 Kentucky vs. No. 5/12/13, 3:25 p.m., ESPN

No. 2 Tennessee vs. No. 7/10, 7 p.m., SEC Network

No. 3 Florida vs. No. 6/11/14, 9:25 p.m., SEC Network

Semifinals: Saturday, March 10

No. 1/8/9 vs. No. 4/5/12/13, 1 p.m., ESPN

No. 2/7/10 vs. No. 3/6/11/14, 3:25 p.m., ESPN

Championship: Sunday, March 11

TBD, 1 p.m., ESPN

Welcome To March

Aubie. The #1 mascot in the land. Photo: Unnamed source

Hello again, and War Eagle everybody!

We start out day with a shout out to the Swimming and Diving teams. Auburn has had Nine women selected to the National Championships which start on March 5th, in Knoxville, TN. If you are anywhere near there, go support our Tigers!

It's officially March, and most of our Auburn sports teams are in full swing. 

Men's basketball ( 24-6 12-5 ) is getting ready for its last home game of the season. They will play host to South Carolina. Here's to sending the Gamecocks home with bruised egos. A win assures our guys at least a share of the regular season SEC Title.

Auburn softball ( 17-2 ) will be very busy from the 2nd through the 4th. Playing no less than six games while hosting the Wilson/DeMarini Classic.


Women's Tennis will match up against Vanderbilt, and Kentucky on the 2nd, and 4th respectively.

Auburn Track has landed six competitors in the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Spring practice has begun for our football team. Lots of work to be done, and several positions to sort out. More on this in a later post.

A-Day will be April 7th at JHS. The game starts at 3pm. 

WAR EAGLE!

Auburn Dismantles Alabama

Revenge is sweetest against your most heated rival. Wednesday evening, in front of a packed Auburn Arena, Auburn had their way with Alabama winning 90-71. The Tigers controlled the game from start to finish. 

"We felt like we needed to come out and punch them in the mouth" coach Bruce Pearl told the media post game. 

Below are some videos from Jason Caldwell of Scout.com :

WAR EAGLE!

Tiger Weekend Recap

Another exciting weekend around Auburn sports was topped by the nations 10th ranked Auburn Men's Golf team winning the All-American Intercollegiate Golf Championship.

"Outstanding win for the team and program," said coach Nick Clinard. "The guys played well, and they played for each other all week. It was fun to watch. We are going to continue to chase greatness each and every day ahead."  - from the official AuburnTigers.com website

Baseball swept Longwood over the weekend scoring 34 runs during the series. The Tigers will host Georgia State in the middle of the week and then play host to Troy next weekend.

Women's basketball dropped a close game on the road at Tuscaloosa. 

The Equestrian team took down #3 Texas A and M solidifying their number 2 ranking. 

Auburn's Softball team is playing at a fantastic level. Ten shutouts, and a 13-0 record have the country's 13th ranked team looking very strong in the debut season of head coach Mickey Dean.

I wanted to finish with a tip of the cap to Coach Lauren Spencer and the job she has done with our Women's Tennis Team. 

After sweeping the weekend play versus Samford, and Michigan State, Coach Spencer had this to say: "Our goal was to come out with good energy. We wanted to control every court and play our game style. We put out a couple of different doubles teams today, so we really wanted to focus on starting the match off right by winning the doubles point. I was really proud that we got two doubles points in today."

The Tigers improved to 9-3 on the season. They are currently ranked 13th in the country.

WAR EAGLE!

Exoneration

Dakota Sumpter/Auburn Athletics

In my lifetime, one constant has always been true: Any win against Kentucky basketball is a great win.

"I don't think either team played particularly well" Coach Bruce Pearl said in his post game  press conference. After starting 0 for 9 behind the 3 point line. The defense the Tigers exhibited kept the game very close. Once the shots started to drop with more regularity, Auburn battled back to take a 39-33 halftime lead.

I have been watching Auburn basketball many years. More often than I care to reiterate here, Auburn has lost those matchups.

Last night in front of a packed Auburn Arena Auburn Men's Basketball put on the gutsiest performance I have ever seen by any Auburn team. "The last 35 times Auburn has played Kentucky, 33 of those times, Kentucky has won." Pearl told his team. "What I talked to the team about was: How many of those players really didn't have a good chance to beat Kentucky.... Let's win this one, for all those lettermen."

That defense continued through the second half. "Our conditioning, our toughness, our resilience our grit. It's why we won the game." - Coach Bruce Pearl

Enjoy this bonus video footage of Auburn Royalty. Sir Charles Barkley

War Eagle!

A New Era Begins for Auburn Softball

The "Mickey Dean Era" will be begin for the Auburn Softball program at 3:00 P.M. CDT this afternoon. Auburn will play Marshall and Wichita State in a doubleheader today. If the weather cooperates, Auburn will play 8 games through Sunday. The games will be broadcast on 95.9 FM and AuburnTigers.com. The Auburn Softball program has a new coaching staff and some new players that will be exciting to watch. Former Auburn great, Emily Carosone will be a Volunteer Assistant Coach and  Kasey Cooper will be commentating on some of the Auburn games on the SEC Network this season. I expect this team to be very good and they had a great Fall season. 

Enjoy the season and War Eagle!

"Bo Bikes Bama" is coming in April

The “Bo Bikes Bama” bike ride is scheduled for 4/28/18. This ride raises money for the Governor’s Emergency Relief Fund for the State of Alabama. The ride begins at the Auburn University Arena at 7:30 A.M. for the 60 mile ride and 10:00 A.M. for the 20 mile ride. I will be on the course to help out. Jerseys and t-shirts will be available for sale after the ride. Please check out bobikesbama.com for registration details. Always enjoy the ride!🚲

Friendly Reminder

This is your friendly reminder from the ATB team! Don't tweet @ recruits! I do not know about Instagram and Snap Chat and how they work, but I am sure there is a way to @ them there as well. Resist!

On a side note, let's all remember that they are high school kids. They are teenagers. They do not always know what they want for lunch. When they arrive at Auburn, it will be all good to interact with them but for now, let them be. As a high school teacher, I like to remind people they still have a few more days of being a high school student.

As always, War Eagle!