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Frustration.
That's the word of the night for Auburn hoops. With a chance to move to 11-9 on the season, the Tigers dropped a game at home to the Texas A&M Aggies (14-5, 5-2 SEC) to move to 10-10 overall and 2-5 in SEC play. While the season is certainly far from over, 11-9 would've been a great starting point to a mid-season comeback for Bruce Pearl and the Tigers.
KT Harrell was not locked in tonight. Tahj Shamsid-Deen's shoulder is more serious than we thought. Alex Thompson needs some defensive pointers. And the list goes on and on.
All of these things, believe it or not, are fixable—even the shoulder (we hope, and we wish Shamsid-Deen a speedy recovery)—but it's going to take more time than perhaps we thought (even being realistic about Pearl's ability to turn the Tigers around this season). To have at least gotten some breathing room tonight with a home win against a good Aggie team would've perhaps made the negative aspects of the game seem less, well, negative, but there should be a few more opportunities for Auburn to beef up its resume before March rolls around.
Without further ado, here's what we learned tonight:
1. Texas A&M is a pretty good team. Like, really good.
He might have doinked two dunks tonight, but Danuel House was on fire. He scored 22 points and went 6-7 behind the arc. And yeah, for those of you reading that, that's House we're talking about (not Harrell, who's usually posting that kind of a line)—the same House that went 1-7 against Tennessee last week. If House is this hot through the rest of the season, A&M is going to shock some folks at the SEC Tournament. Bruce Pearl allegedly said that A&M might be the second-best team in the SEC right now. He's certainly not wrong.
We knew that A&M was a good team, but it was frustrating to watch Auburn play somewhat lethargically tonight. Granted, the Jungle was not as packed as it was against Mississippi State (I'm going to blame professors for scheduling research papers this week), but even a moderately packed Auburn Arena deserves a better performance from the Tigers. Flashes of brilliance here and there are simply not enough to put away teams like A&M, and here's the bad news—the schedule doesn't get much easier from here on out.
Cinmeon once again hit double-digit scoring, but was unable to post another double-double with only 8 rebounds. A&M showed up to play on both ends of the court, and like Harrell, it was clearly a frustrating night for Bowers as he earned a technical foul in tonight's game.
2. A frustrated KT Harrell is not a good KT Harrell
It wasn't a terrible night for KT, but for a guy who's scored at least 20 points in each of the last three games, it could've been much better. Harrell was clearly frustrated tonight, and he wasn't even able to score until the second half:
KT with his first bucket of the game is a layup and the foul. Will go to the line for the 3-point play with 17:15 in the 2nd half.
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) January 28, 2015
KT Harrell is the second leading scorer in the SEC, and he is typically a 3-pointer machine. Solid drives usually lead to a great free-throw percentage for Harrell as well, but there wasn't much of that, either. KT's struggles pretty much spelled our entire team's troubles tonight:
POINTS IN THE PAINT: Texas A&M 42, Auburn 14.
— Jay G. Tate (@JayGTate) January 28, 2015
Shooting all around was stale for Auburn, and in a bizzarro-world twist, free-throws actually did us a bigger favor than our FG percentage. The Tigers went 71% from the line tonight. Astounding. Once Auburn can put consistent offense together with that kind of FT percentage, look out, SEC. But as we all understand, this is not going to happen overnight.
3. Get that kid a new set of ankles—Tahj just broke 'em/Contact Lenses are a problem for some folks
Hey, things weren't all bad tonight. Flash of brilliance, engage. No description even needed:
Now if we could just bionically heal Tahj's shoulder. Tahj came out in the second half with a wrap on his shoulder and did not play the rest of the night:
Tahj Shamsid-Deen comes out late from halftime, right shoulder completely wrapped over his jersey. His night is over.
— James Crepea (@JamesCrepea) January 28, 2015
And what was with contact lenses tonight?
Cinmeon lost a contact. Refs won't call contact. And circle gets the square.
— Bobby Barkley (@bobby_barkley) January 28, 2015
Bill Belichick probably deflated everyone's contacts tonight
— Bobby Barkley (@bobby_barkley) January 28, 2015
If I was good at basketball I wouldn't wear contacts. I would go straight Kareem Abdul Jabbar glasses.
— AU Beards (@AU_Beards) January 28, 2015
Wear goggles, kids.
Once again, here are your tweets from the game, which, like wine, get better with age...er...time. Whatever.
AUBURN VS. TEXAS A&M TWEETS:
Student section is packed. The rest? Ehhhh pic.twitter.com/jcalHTZQep
— Nathan Deal (@NateDawgAU) January 28, 2015
After an 8-0 run by the Aggies early in the game:
Terrible start
— AUHoopsBlog (@AUHoopsBlog) January 28, 2015
Texas A&M 11, Auburn 4 with 15:47 left in the first half pic.twitter.com/uUJSz5Ywty
— Auburn Gold Mine (@AUGoldMine) January 28, 2015
Things looking grim?
Looks like it's gonna be another long night
— AUHoopsBlog (@AUHoopsBlog) January 28, 2015
This is not going well.
— College & Magnolia (@CollegeAndMag) January 28, 2015
THEN THE ANKLE-BREAKING COMMENCES:
SHAMSID-DEEN, IF YOU THREASE
— Bobby Barkley (@bobby_barkley) January 28, 2015
Damn Tahj!
— Chief (@AUChief) January 28, 2015
RIP #21′s ankles
— TheTigerTalk.com (@TheTigerTalk) January 28, 2015
L O L white boy down!
— Jared (@wardamnjared) January 28, 2015
Tahj buries a three, and the Tigers are back within 7, 15-8. 13:12 to go.
— College & Magnolia (@CollegeAndMag) January 28, 2015
ANKLE BREAKER MY BOY TAHJ
— War Eagle Recruiting (@AUrecruiting) January 28, 2015
Tahj just broke that guys ankles then disrespected him even more by making a 3 right in front of him.
— EverToConquerPodcast (@E2C_Podcast) January 28, 2015
Looks like we've found the source of Auburn's offensive woes...
Great 3 but the middle of that zone is wide open. Get someone in there and bust that zone wide open #AUBball
— Shot Block King (@7ftwonder) January 28, 2015
...annndddd defensive woes, too:
Alex Thompson plays defense like a dude who just discovered the game of basketball yesterday.
— Lonely Tailgater (@LonelyTailgater) January 28, 2015
Auburn did begin to chip away at the Aggies' first-half lead:
Without House Auburn would be winning this game. Love that we responded so good to the bad start
— AUHoopsBlog (@AUHoopsBlog) January 28, 2015
Halftime entertainment was suspect, according to Twitter:
Just got a ton of silly string should at me from the Zooperstars...
— Clint Richardson® (@Clintau24) January 28, 2015
*shot
Aubie's better
— Clint Richardson® (@Clintau24) January 28, 2015
I refuse to interact with any mascot that isn't Aubie. #loyalty #AubiesTheBest
— Phillip Crain (@PhillipCWDE) January 28, 2015
Second half action:
I mean, he really was polite...
KC Ross Miller with the first points of the half for Auburn from the charity stripe. 37-31 TAMU
— College & Magnolia (@CollegeAndMag) January 28, 2015
KT with his first bucket of the game is a layup and the foul. Will go to the line for the 3-point play with 17:15 in the 2nd half.
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) January 28, 2015
Cim has been getting torched baseline all night.
— Phillip Crain (@PhillipCWDE) January 28, 2015
Not saying it's all on him but whatever is the issue that's the result.
— Phillip Crain (@PhillipCWDE) January 28, 2015
Lots of time left, but it just feel a so flat in here.
— Chief (@AUChief) January 28, 2015
Texas A&M has 32 points in the paint, 15 from 3, 7 FTs and 2 from somewhere else. 2.
— James Crepea (@JamesCrepea) January 28, 2015
Miss. St. beat Auburn b/c they made tough shots. Texas A&M has beaten Auburn b/c they took way more easy ones.
— Jerry Hinnen (@JerryHinnen) January 28, 2015
Yikes...but I agree here:
Auburn down 12 with 4 minutes and fans are heading for the exits. If you are one of those fans then shame on you. Stay until the end.
— BoddaGettaBasketball (@BoddaGettaBball) January 28, 2015
Auburn (10-10, 2-5 SEC) falls to Texas A&M, 71-61. Tigers return to action on Saturday at Tennessee at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN2.
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) January 28, 2015
I LIKE THIS:
Auburn falls to a tough Texas A&M 71-61, but House still can't dunk it.
— EverToConquerPodcast (@E2C_Podcast) January 28, 2015
War Damn Eagle, always, folks. Time to get ready for the Vols on Saturday. We'll see y'all then.