Way Too Early Basketball Rankings

[aubiefifty 18,231]

cbs sports has ranked auburn basketball the 88th best team in the country. when i tried to bring it up malwares blocked it and it will take a while for me to figure out how to undo that. i thought some folks might want to know and some kind soul will post the article. i will still be looking to find it.

[aubiefifty 18,231]

[gravejd 3,304]

I bet Pearl was super excited when this ranking came out. He loves using this type of stuff as motivational tools for his team. And with a young team any and all things you can use to keep them plugged in and engaged is a good thing. 

For the ranking itself, i get it. I mean we bring back basically nothing from last years team. I think our leading returning scoring is Cambridge at 4 point per game. The 88th ranking is a tip of the cap to Pearl for the reputation he has of always fielding competitive teams even when you don't expect him too. 

i'll predict that by end of season we'll be considered better than 88th in the country. Where we end up is anyones guess but i'll bet on Pearl to figure it out

[Rednilla 5,447]

4 hours ago, gravejd said:

I bet Pearl was super excited when this ranking came out. He loves using this type of stuff as motivational tools for his team. And with a young team any and all things you can use to keep them plugged in and engaged is a good thing. 

For the ranking itself, i get it. I mean we bring back basically nothing from last years team. I think our leading returning scoring is Cambridge at 4 point per game. The 88th ranking is a tip of the cap to Pearl for the reputation he has of always fielding competitive teams even when you don't expect him too. 

i'll predict that by end of season we'll be considered better than 88th in the country. Where we end up is anyones guess but i'll bet on Pearl to figure it out

Agreed on all points. As long as Bruce is here, my default position is going to be expecting to make it into the NCAA Tourney at the very least, but if even as much of a homer as I am, I wouldn't put us too much higher than this because we don't have a single player on the team who averaged playing even a third of each game last year. I believe in Bruce (Bowman, Flanigan, and the younger Pearl, too, for that matter), and I believe in the talent we've brought in, but early on, we're probably going to look a little rough.

[Zeek 16,953]

23 hours ago, Rednilla said:

Agreed on all points. As long as Bruce is here, my default position is going to be expecting to make it into the NCAA Tourney at the very least, but if even as much of a homer as I am, I wouldn't put us too much higher than this because we don't have a single player on the team who averaged playing even a third of each game last year. I believe in Bruce (Bowman, Flanigan, and the younger Pearl, too, for that matter), and I believe in the talent we've brought in, but early on, we're probably going to look a little rough.

Woooooooo boy howdy! I wouldn't ever put a Bruce team below 50! We're gonna be fine!

[tigeraddikt 1,697]

Show me the way to early basketball rankings.

[AuburnNTexas 7,317]

With out top 6 players leaving this is a fair rating, but based on our talent level it is a low rating. Pearl and staff are great teachers so it is just a matter how long it takes for them to meld the talent into a team. I think by end of Season we will be a very good team so question is will we do well enough early to allow us to make it to the big dance.

[Tiger 8,854]

We are on the cusp of becoming one of the programs that gets national respect even after losing several/all key contributors but we are not there quite yet. A strong showing this year and I think we will be one of those teams that never drops below 35 or so in these types of pre-season rankings -- even after a mass exodus of talent and production.

Bruce has that kind of pull, but we are still fighting through basically a century of people associating "Auburn Basketball" with "sucks". Media folks don't let go of this type of that train of thought very easily.

[Rednilla 5,447]

On 11/10/2020 at 3:13 PM, AuburnNTexas said:

With out top 6 players leaving this is a fair rating, but based on our talent level it is a low rating. Pearl and staff are great teachers so it is just a matter how long it takes for them to meld the talent into a team. I think by end of Season we will be a very good team so question is will we do well enough early to allow us to make it to the big dance.

Really? We have three 4 stars and one 5 star, all freshmen. It might be low based purely on talent level, but it's extremely low in experienced talent. A group of 3 stars that has been there a few years and knows how to play together can easily be better than a more talented group, particularly if it's not a more talented group that has as many 5 stars as we have 4 and 5 stars combined and then a handful of 4 stars as well, like the Kansas, Duke, Kentucky type programs that get the kind of respect as to not drop out of the top 25 if it loses all of the main players from the previous year's team...and usually those teams also have veteran role players to provide stability. I mean, I doubt any program outside of those three would be able to bounce back in preseason rankings if they lost every player who averaged more than a third of the game the previous season. 

Now, by the end of the season, when the young players have gained experience, it's easy to move them up in the rankings, and I fully expect that to happen, which is why I think we'll make the NCAA Tourney. But for now, I like it. Perfect motivational tool.