Basketball analyst on Auburn's 'dudes' and challenges for SEC's new coaches

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Basketball analyst on Auburn's 'dudes' and challenges for SEC's new coaches

Mark Murphy

5-6 minutes

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AUBURN, Alabama–College basketball analyst Seth Greenberg predicts that the new head coaches and their teams across the Southeastern Conference for the 2022-23 hoops season will be hard-pressed to keep up with the top teams in the league. One of those teams expected among the best in the SEC is the Auburn Tigers.

Asked what he expects to see from the SEC for the 2022-23 season, Greenberg said, “I think there are five or six teams that can go really deep in the NCAA Tournament.

“It sounds funny, but SEC basketball is as deep as SEC football and that probably hasn’t happened in a long time,” said Greenberg, who won 380 games as a college head coach before moving into television.

In the SEC there are five newcomers making their debuts in the league as head coach and another, Mike White, made the move from Florida to Georgia to replace Tom Crean, who was fired.

“If you don’t win you are gone,” Greenberg said. “That is why there are six new coaches in the league. The expectations and the resources that have been put into it from building facilities to hiring coaches, it is giving everyone a chance to have a chance to compete at the highest level.”

Mississippi State hired Chris Jans, who was very successful at New Mexico State. Jans is familiar with Auburn’s head coach, Bruce Pearl, after nearly upsetting Pearl’s Final Four team in a 2019 NCAA Tournament opening round game at Salt Lake City. Jans replaces veteran coach Ben Howland.

“They are all good coaches, all different,” Greenberg said. “Chris Jans, he is like the blue collar guy of the group. He will try to figure out unique ways (to win).”

Florida hired former Auburn assistant coach Todd Golden to make the move from the University of San Francisco to Gainesville.

“Todd Golden is the boy wonder of the group,” Greenberg said of the 36-year-old coach, who replaced White. “He is going to try to out-think you, I guess.”

South Carolina fired veteran coach Frank Martin and brought in Lamont Paris from Chattanooga. “I think Lamont has probably paid his dues in situations that were difficult,” Greenberg said. “I think Mike White is a terrific, terrific coach.”

Another veteran coach, Cuonzo Martin, lost his job and Dennis Gates is his replacement at Missouri. Gates made the move from Cleveland State of the Horizon League. Gates succeeded in rebuilding Cleveland State, winning Horizon League championships in his second and third year there. Before that he earned a reputation as a strong recruiter at Florida State and elsewhere.

LSU also has a new head coach with Will Wade fired for NCAA infractions issues rather than his team’s performance on the court. Matt McMahon, who had major success at Murray State, will try to duplicate that in Baton Rouge.

“I think across the board good coaches, but you know what, terrific players make terrific coaches,” Greenberg said about the new coaches in the SEC. “Then you have got to figure out a way to evaluate and figure out a way to win in this league. They are all going to do it differently. I think that is going to be the challenge for these guys.”

Greenberg, who has been attending practices around the SEC, visited an Auburn workout on the way to SEC Media Days. The Tigers won last season’s league championship with a 15-3 record, but they have to replace a pair of first round NBA draft picks in Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler. The Tigers brought in talented newcomers to fill those spots plus a pair of guards for a roster that returns its starting guards. 

“I want to see the guards to see if they have a little bit better decision-making, understanding pace and getting others involved,” Greenberg said when asked about his expectations for Auburn. He noted how transfer center Johni Broome and freshman power forward Yohan Traore perform will be keys to success for the 2022-23 Tigers.

“I think the thing that Bruce has developed is strength in numbers,” Greenberg pointed out. “He is 12 deep in dudes who can play.”

Commenting on Pearl, who is beginning his ninth season at Auburn, Greenberg said, “Everywhere he has every been he has recruited good players and he has evaluated better players.”

Greenberg uses guards Jared Harper and Bryce Brown, starters on the 2019 Final Four team, as an example of Pearl’s ability to see prospects and project how they will develop in college. “If you think about that backcourt, no one recruited them so finding guys who understand how to win, who understand their identity and understand how to be a winning player by buying in, I think that is Bruce’s greatest gift in recruiting.

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“Recruiting Jabari, which obviously that is great, but recruiting those other guys who evaluate up and seeing not just where he is, but where he is going, that is what makes him so good. He did it at Milwaukee, he did it at Tennessee, he did it at Southern Indiana and he has done that at Auburn.”

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