Link sAUsage: 16 December 2015

HOME ON THE PLAINS

Well, the men's basketball game was last night, but there's still the ladies game, this morning! Yes. This morning. For information on that, check out Everett's article.

BASKETBALL

The Tigers took on the Bears last night in Auburn Arena in Auburn's lone December home basketball game. That's strange to think about, but true. Auburn won't play at home again until the opening SEC game shortly after the new year. They'll be in Hawaii during the week of Christmas for a tournament. As for what happened in the game, Auburn came away with the big victory. I'm not a gambler, so I find the fact that Bowers' last second (literally (1)) dunk meant Auburn covered the spread.

For some reason, as mentioned above, the women are playing Winthrop in Auburn Arena at 11am Central today. Soooo... I don't expect many people are going to be able to make that game. 2pm on a weekday was bad enough for the men's game against Colorado. 11am on a Wednesday? That's a hard time for a college basketball game.

GYMNASTICS

Auburn will open the 2016 season with the highest preseason ranking in program history at #10. The Tigers finished last season in the Super Six, so the program is definitely on a great track.

SOFTBALL

The Tigers released their 2016 schedule, which is going to be a tough one. Auburn will face a number of teams who were in the NCAA Tournament last season. Clint Myers' squad hopes to make it back to Oklahoma City for the Women's College World Series again this season.

FOOTBALL

Today is the first day that JUCO prospects can sign with schools. We'll have more on that and a wrap-up of the JUCO signees this afternoon.

Only one Tigers is currently invited to the Senior Bowl, and that's defensive back Jonathan Jones. Other seniors are on the "alternate" list, but right now Jones is the only one confirmed to be invited.

Peyton Barber - Auburn's offensive player of the year - is just 24 yards from the 1000 yard mark. Gus Malzahn has had a 1,000 yard rusher in pretty much every season as a college coach, so you can bet Peyton will get enough carries against Memphis to get him over the mark. Assuming the running game is actually working.

Some of Auburn's players feel like the Birmingham Bowl will make or break the 2015 season. Hopefully that means they're going to show up to the game playing hard rather than coming out flat. Memphis is not a team you can afford to play flat against.

Do you want a season review of Auburn football from ESPN? Sure you do. Personally, I'm waiting for after the bowl game to dig into those, but they're out there now from many different outlets.

For the SEC as a whole, ESPN says this is an important bowl season. You can bet Auburn is a big part of that, as the Tigers are the only team playing an AAC opponent. An AAC opponent who already has one SEC victory this season, too.

Four Tigers earned Masters Degrees last Saturday, including Shon Coleman. Coleman's Auburn journey has been quite the story. I'm glad he's been able to earn multiple degrees during his time on the Plains.