Coffee and Magnolia: 20 April 2015

We'll have stuff up on Softball, Gymnastics, etc around noon.

BASEBALL

The Tigers needed a big series win, and they got one. Cole Lipscomb worked some magic on Friday evening and earned a 3-1 complete game victory over Ole Miss. Saturday the Tigers and Rebels were in double-header action. The Rebels took Game 1, but Auburn came roaring out in Game 2 and destroyed Ole Miss by two touchdowns. The final was 14-0.

Auburn need that series if the Tigers want to stay in the post-season hunt. While they aren't doing the greatest in the SEC, the Tigers have fought hard in a lot of those losses and the Tigers are 21st in the nation in RPI. That's going to help them get into the post-season as long as they can string together some more series wins before the season ends. The Tigers still have UGA (next weekend in Auburn), South Carolina, Alabama, and Florida remaining in conference play.

BASKETBALL

It was awards banquet weekend for the basketball team. As you would expect, KT Harrell brought home quite the haul. Some other notables were Cinmeon Bowers getting the Impact Player of the Year and Malcolm Canada receiving the Sixth Man Award. That's definitely well deserved.

FOOTBALL

A-Day was this weekend, did you know that? There's a ton of stuff out there about it. There's a quick reaction and tweet-cap of Gus Malzahn's press conference, then a much more detailed review of what to take away and not to take away from the game here on College and Magnolia.

In the "Having fun with things" part of A-Day, we ponder the question of Who Makes The Real Deal Wear A Name Tag? Then we also posed the question of just whose bio is telling the truth and whose is fuzzy on the details about the heights of NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin and QB recruit Jawon Pass.

Prior to the game, awards from 2014 were handed out to last season's players.

From the official site, Gus Malzahn is happy with A-Day, and there are nice write-ups on Jeremy Johnson and Myron Burton, Jr. Both had excellent days on Saturday. Burton won the Lionel James Offensive MVP Award for his performance.

Quite a few Tigers missed the festivities on the field Saturday afternoon. Many of those are projected starters, which is one of the reasons you can't place too much emphasis on Saturday's performances.

The Montgomery Advertisor's Ethan Bernal is tired of Gus Malzahn not naming the starting quarterback. I really don't think Gus cares what that guy thinks. If Gus wants to keep motivating Jeremy Johnson by not naming White the starter, then that's what he's going to do. Everyone pretty much knows JJ will be the starter. What does it matter exactly when Gus makes it official?

Tray Matthews was named the Defensive MVP for the A-Day game. He was quite thrilled with the interception he pulled down in the game. He was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct on the play, but if you watch the video of it, it's not all that bad. He showboats a bit and blows a kiss to the crowd. You can bet he's in on the joke of actually pulling down the interception in Jordan-Hare Stadium, this time. Especially since it was another play where he caught it with another defender right there in on the play, too.

Brandon Marcello of AL.com names 10 players that stood out to him at A-Day. I think I'd agree with just about every one of those. I might have included Cameron Toney, as well.

Gus Malzahn is ok with the low-scoring total of A-Day. The first team offense scored 24 points in the first half. Oh, and those were 12 minute quarters. Yep, I think he's happy with that.

Roc Thomas had the best day of the three running backs, and he looked very impressive doing it. He made some great cuts and moves to go up and down the field. He kept going forward. He held on to the football. I liked it. I really liked seeing Jeremy Johnson running down field as the lead blocker on that first touchdown.

SB NATION

While I do these link dumps for all of us Auburn fans, SB Nation has one for all of college football. It typically doesn't come out until after I publish ours, so I never put it in. It's out early this morning, so I'm including as something y'all might be interested in and keep a look out for going forward. It's called The Read Option.