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I Have Never Enjoyed AU Sports More (How I Learned To Relax And Love The 3)
It is a shame that the double dribble was not called, but, frankly, I seriously doubt the stripes were aware of that error until after the game ended. Had they been aware, I doubt they make the call on Doughty (it was definitely a foul as the rule is written; but I saw worse go uncalled yesterday for both sides). Refs will give makeup no calls as well as makeup calls. We were owed one there.
This team peaked at the perfect time. The whole is well beyond the sum of its parts. The loss of the seniors will undo that particular great chemistry to some degree, how much will remain to be seen. And that is what is particularly painful to me about yesterday's game. We really should be playing on Monday night, and it is so hard to get to that last Monday night.Going forward, Pearl could upgrade the talent level, coach excellently, and still never make it back to the last weekend of the tournament. It takes as much good fortune as skill to win 6 in a row in the NCAA tournament, and it is more of an uphill hike when you are not one of the Nike cool kids.
But it will be fun to see Bruce try, I believe. I love the style of play and the energy on both ends of the court. I do not expect that to change much. I do hope we will become slightly less reliant on the 3 point shot, but, if you have shooters, you should flog it frequently from back there. There are all sorts of studies that conclude that the most valuable shots in college basketball are threes, dunks/layups, and FTs. A competent offense should be designed to get as many of those high value shots as possible. I really like where we are going there.
This particular team is one of the most likeable Auburn has ever had in any sport: talented, fast, hardworking, gritty, (mostly) smart, and tougher than a $2 steak. Plus, they appear to love the game and each other a great deal. When you have that in an endeavor, there's not much in the way of human experience that is better.
It is a good time for SEC hoops, and I am glad Auburn is in the mix and shooting that thing from way downtown.
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We have lost close football games on a missed call before but we can always say, well, we'll get another chance another time.
This is the first and maybe the last time in my life that Auburn will be in the Final Four in basketball .5 seconds away from the NCAA championship. I certainly don't think that the refs deliberately screwed us but they screwed us.
