Well round ball fans, another exciting season of Auburn basketball is about to get under way and as always, there's electricity in the air as everyone wonders if this group of Tigers will make another run at the Final 4. As is the norm, Auburn is a heavy favorite to win the SEC again and the only question is will they be able to secure a #1 seed in the Southern Region this year and play close to home. Only time will tell. Already, the Auburn Arena is getting cluttered with the numerous banners being hung, but I'm sure they'll make room for one more.
I crack me up.
There's one more exhibition game to play this Friday and then the regular season starts on November 8th. The good thing about this pre-conference schedule is they have at least added a couple more recognizable teams and every game won't be against Salem College and Devry University. Early on, they host Murray State, then travel to Ames, Iowa to face Iowa State in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. After that, they match up against Illinois in the ATL, then have home games against Clemson and Boston College. I will say that under Barbee, they have continually tried to make the pre-conference schedule tougher with opponents people might actually want to see us play.
This year, the team will again look vastly different than the year before. Hopefully, that's a good thing because Lord knows this team has been shitty for a while. If they don't get kicked off for undisclosed violation of team rules, these dudes should play. The main contributors from last year that return are guard, Chris Denson and forward, Allen Payne. Size shouldn't be a problem (That's what she said) with the roster showing two 7 footers. Pronouncing half the players' names should be a problem. One of the 7 footers is Benas Griciunas and the other is Asauhn Dixon-Tatum. Gricunas scored 15 in the first exhibition game and Dixon-Tatum still sucks. Two new point guards join Denson, Malcolm Oh Canada and Tahj Shamsid Deen Abdullah Hassan Smith. The two combined for 25 points in the win over mighty Victory while Denson scored 21.
The rest of the roster is rounded out by some other guys. They'll play some too.
Oh yeah, and we're probably still shitty.