Nice win by the Tigers!
Yep. Mercer is a solid club and came in 8-1. A couple of observations.
Positive. This ain't yer daddy's Auburn Tigers. No, not a Final 4 club. Making the NCAA's looks doable. Actual talent. Some guys that can shoot. Got some size. Some quickness. Some swagger. Bowers is seriously slimmed down, as Wes said. Canty is a playa. Tyler Harris is a solid 6'10" player who has a good all around game. If this Purifoy kid can make it in, they can make some noise. Really nice to see.
Short term negative. Down the stretch when AU had a 3-4 point lead, they reverted back to last year and years past. Horrible free throw shooting. Throwing the ball away. Bad shots. Played good defense, which is what saved them. Then Canty hit a long range, contested 3 that opened the flood gates in the final minute. They looked out of control. When you see elite teams in the last stages of the game, they say, "We're going to run this and it's up to you to do something about it. You foul us...we sink free throws. But we're not doing stupid shit."
Auburn does stupid shit. Needs correcting. Zero excuse for shooting free throws badly. Teach it. Practice it. Takes no effort. This team has a chance to do some damn good things. There's more talent than we've had since Cliff Ellis left. By far. They know how to score points but they need to understand what it takes to close games out. They'll have that chance right away.