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BASKETBALL
Well, I was honestly expecting (though hoping it wouldn't be the case) that I would be saying "the season is over, let's look to next year" for basketball. However, that is not the case. AUBURN WON AN SEC TOURNAMENT GAME! For the first time since 2009, the Tigers came up victorious and live to fight another day. They did it because of unlikely heroes Alex Thompson and Devin Waddell. What a game for those two. Thompson, especially. He had a career high 16 points, including two CLUTCH three pointers late in the game.
Did you see how amped Bruce was on the SEC Network within moments of the game ending? He was laughing, praising the team and the fans, and just soaking it in. Gus Malzahn was a huge hire for Auburn football, but I think Bruce Pearl may end up being Jay Jacobs' piece de resistance.
If you missed it, Antoine Mason honored his dad in a pretty neat way with a message on his shoes.
Because of the victory, the Tigers will play again today against Texas A&M. The game is at 2pm and oh, hey, look, we already have a preview up for you!
FOOTBALL
It's been two days since I did a link dump, and Spring Practice started during one of those days, so there's a ton of football-related news to get to.
First, there's our recap of Gus Malzahn's opening press conference on Tuesday afternoon. Then Bobby Barkley wrapped up the first day of spring practice with discussion of what the beat writers were able to observe and what they picked up from players they were given access to following the first practice.
Chadd Scott has five burning questions Auburn needs to answer in spring practice. It seems as if everyone has five burning questions. Or three. We didn't do one of those, here. Maybe we'll do a version here, shortly. Probably next week, though, as I'm still on annual training orders and can't do much writing other than these late-night link dump creations and what I've already done and set to publish.
I was going to write individual things about each of ESPN's articles on Auburn that have been written over the past few days, but then I decided to just link to the Auburn page and go from there. There's articles on how running backs in general in the SEC may carry the load, two primers on Auburn's spring practice, an article about the starting QB job being Jeremy Johnson's to lose (one that has been written by almost every beat writer, so far), and others.
There have been some more additions to Auburn's staff before the spring, including former Auburn defensive tackle Ken Carter. We now have Coach Carter. Although he's not really in a coaching role. I'm still going to call him Coach Carter, though.
There are position battles galore going on. Ole Miss transfer Austin Golson is in the battle for the starting center with Xavier Dampeer, the QB job is open even if it is Jeremy Johnson's to lose, and there are other spots like the starting running back slot, as well. Other players have been swapped around, as well; especially on the offensive line, and the switching there may not be finished depending on the health of Alex Kozan and who wins the starting center job. Regardless of how things end up, I feel pretty good about the offensive line, right now.
Carl Lawson is back on the practice field, and you can see video of him in action. REJOICE. He is somewhat limited, though. He's not the only one, as Alex Kozan and others are not going full speed just yet (or at all) this spring.
One of the fun things that comes along with spring is the changing or announcing of numbers on the roster. You can see who is listed as what number and position on the roster here.
The Tigers are back on the practice field, today. It will also be during the basketball team's game against Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament, so it will be interesting to see what gets the most coverage by the beat writers. The fact that I'm having to ask that question just says how much of an effect Bruce Pearl is having on Auburn University.
War Eagle, everyone. BARN HARD.