With five games left, it appears that the young men on Auburn’s Basketball team have answered the call for Jeff Lebo. While Auburn has been down right terrible at times this season, they have seemed to turn the corner with a late push. Auburn is the second hottest team in the conference with a four game winning streak, behind only LSU (7 game streak) who the Tigers play on Saturday.
Auburn being 17-9 and 6-5 in the SEC gives them third in the Western Division. If the Tigers can go 3-2 the rest of the way Auburn would finish the regular season in that position as well. A pretty good showing for a team that lost to Mercer in Auburn earlier in the season. Does that make us post season bound? More than likely not the one Tourney you and I want, but postseason bound… possibly. Auburn could get some help from the committee by playing Northern Iowa and Dayton close. The loss to Northern Iowa sounds worse than it actually is. UNI is second in the Missouri Valley Conference behind only Creighton. The one point loss to Dayton in OT could be the best L on the resume. Dayton is winning the A10 Conference at the moment. That is the same conference with Xavier (number 14 in the polls).
Back to the good stuff… if Tay Waller and Korvortney Barber keep their stellar play up, these Tigers could sneak out a 3-2 record over these last 5 games and make Auburn an easy pick for the NIT Tournament and the end of the season. 20 wins and a .500 mark in conference pretty much means a post season spot. Unfortunately for Auburn should it make the NIT, it will have to be a road game, since no one seems to care that Auburn is playing hard for their coach who is squarely on the hot seat. The NIT folks look at attendance extremely hard.
Some might say, "What about the Big Dance?" Well 20 wins and a winning record in conference does not do what it used to. There are just too many good mid major teams these days. And just too many Div I teams all together to have the old criteria apply. Also the SEC is woefully down this season, and the power conferences like ACC and Big East will take the extra spots.
The only shot at the NCAA’s I can see would be to go 4-1 or better over the last 5 games, and make some serious noise in the SEC Tourney. I don’t think the Tigers would have to win it necessarily, but they would have to get to the finals.
We all can really hope for the above, but I just don’t see Auburn being able to beat LSU and Miss State both on the road and making the needed SEC Tourney run. Auburn needs to hold serve at home against Ole Miss and LSU and win at Bama. That would be the magical 20 wins. Winning one of the other road games would be gravy. Postseason bound, and Lebo another year to hopefully pull this team out of the depths of basketball hell.
Maybe Lebo is getting our young men ready to play. It has just taken him awhile to get his point across. Whether you think he should stay or not, at least the team seems to be playing for him to have another year. Auburn should be Senior laden next season, and that is always a good thing when it comes to experience in the SEC.
War Damn Basketball.
