Auburn Loses Big to Vanderbilt 75-57

13-2, 9-0, 10-2. Those were the runs before the first media timeout as first Vandy, then Auburn, then Vandy again went on a roll.

It started ugly, got a lot better, but then went ugly again, in other words. Vandy was dropping every three point shot they took, while Auburn was missing shots, failing to rebound, failing to score under the basket, and just generally playing like the Tigers have been playing for the last few games.

Auburn seems to be getting every team that's hot from three point range, lately. Vandy started 6-6 from beyond the arc until they finally missed their first three point shot with just over 3 minutes to play in the first half. Vanderbilt was shooting 78% through most of the first half, and it's hard to do anything when a team is shooting that well. They closed 66% from the field and 75% from three.

Vanderbilt went into the half with a 39-22 lead and it was really hard to believe Auburn cared about being in this game. Even with the injuries last season the team fought. In this one it just really didn't look like there was a lot of fight in the team in the first half.

It's a good thing we play two halves of basketball, though, isn't... LOLNOPE, can't do it, we sucked in the second half, too. TJ Lang ended up with four fouls before we were two minutes into the second half. Auburn never really came close to getting back into this one, even with Vandy's Damian Jones having four fouls 5 minutes into the second half, too. About the best that could be said about the second half is that they didn't let it get even more out of hand than that 17 point halftime lead. They did give up a triple-double to Vandy's Luke Kornet, though, which is never ideal.

Other thoughts:

1) Commentators in the studio suck. It really killed the feel of watching the game, since they kept the actual audio feed low so that the commentators would be louder.

2) Why Can't Auburn convert on layups, lately? It wasn't just Bowers, tonight. Tyler Harris struggled with it. Horace Spencer needs to dunk it, too. Yes, they obviously make some of them, but they miss far too many. Bowers did MUCH better in the second half, but the team was still struggling.

3) Injuries hurt, but the healthy players aren't playing to their potential, either. I don't get it. The misses on easy shots, the horrible passes, the lack of any attempt at offensive rebounding on distance shots, it just seems like this team isn't playing to their potential. I know players are hurt, but those that are healthy are all playing poorly compared to their early season form, too. Perhaps it's all a combination of factors. I just know we can't get TJ Dunans back quickly enough. And with classes starting tomorrow, maybe we'll finally get some form of finality on the Danjel Purifoy subject. I'm honestly kind of doubting it, though.