Now for the AU basketball projection.Like the old joke about the cavalry scout reporting
to the troops that he has good news and bad news as they go into winter
quarters.“The bad news – we have
nothing to eat until spring but dried buffalo chips.The good news is there are a million of them.”And there is good news and bad news with AU
basketball.This will be a painful
basketball season because we have a bad team.How bad you ask?Remember those
bad teams of past AU seasons?They would
beat this team by 20 points.But there
are glimpses of light at the end of the tunnel.The best guard – Frankie Sullivan --and most
talented forward – Ty Armstrong --will sit out the season due to injury (loss
of promising talent in our program in the off season due to 1) injury, 2) academic
troubles or 3) an unfortunate incarceration is to AU basketball what spending
other people’s money is to a politician.)Their return for the 2011/2012 season combined w/ a year of experience
for the present players and addition of new talent will mean that a year from
now we will have a team that should compete to play in the NCAA
tournament.So, better times are
ahead.But not soon.This team may not win an SEC game.If they do it will be because LSU manages to
be even worse than we are.
Here is the season as I see it playing out.
Tony Neysmith,Andre
Malone, Rob Chubb,Josh Langford, Allen
Payne,Earnest Ross and Adrian Forbes
will play.No one else will see the court
much unless Kenny Gabriel manages to arise from his funk.Ross, Malone and Langford could make an SEC roster
elsewhere but no one else.Langford is a
player w/ a future at AU so watch him for his development through the season.
The key to being able to enjoy this season is to develop the
capacity to see how Barbee brings these players along for the promise of
another day.Watch for -- not the W/L record because it will be dismal --
but work habits on D and for ball movement and discipline on offense.Watch
for continual effort even when the game is out of reach and for attitude.
And the one truly bright spot for the season so far has been
--are you ready for this – Free throw
shooting.They have been pretty good to
this point.
So – onward and upward.New arena which is a great place to watch basketball so come while seats
are still available.And in 2011/2012 we will have a basketball
team that wins 8 to 10 SEC games.
--
"I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted." "All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful." — Flannery O'Connor
