What are your concerns?

[Dr. Starcs]

Let me first start off by stating that I did not post this question to be negative.  I am as happy as anyone about the streak we are on.  But now that it appears that we have a legitimate chance to be divisional champions, what are some things that must be improved in order for us to really make a run at the NCAAT?  I know there are many things we need to do better, but here are my major ones...

1.  Maybe my biggest concern is our halfcourt defense.  Yesterday, we continued to pressure 40 feet from the basket.  This is not necessarily a bad thing to mix in from time to time.  However, we continued to let the dribbler get by us, forcing help and leaving a shooter wide open.  I don't understand why we didn't back off and play a little better contain defense.  It seemed like we created a lot of Auburn's offense for them.  Late in the game Joe "string music" Dean was calling for a zone defense to combat this.  I thought we did  a nice job with our 2-3 contesting the outside shot, but we didn't go to it late.  Individually, Powell may be our worst defender.  It may have just been a bad matchup, but he continued to let his guy get by him. 

2.  Rebounding.  It is never a good sign when your point guard gets more rebounds than your post men.  Fortson seems like the only one that really wants the ball.  I think we miss Sanchez more than I thought we would.

3.  End of game situations.  Somehow I knew that Auburn would either tie the game or win it at the end of regulation yesterday.  We saw Welsh commit an untimely turnover, Clarke and Fortson missed critical free throws and again we gave up a big shot late in the game to force it to overtime.  It seemed like the UAB game was happening all over again. 

I would love to see this team continue to win and unite our fanbase and get our state excited about basketball again.  We've got a good thing going right now with a favorable schedule coming up. 

Go Hogs!!!

[luvmesomehogs]

Effort.  We go in periods where we play great defense and fight for the boards. I would like to see a 40 minute complete effort.  I do like the current team chemistry.

[Poker_hog]

a walk on golfer is gettng more minutes than many scholership players

[Kevin]

droughts on offense
rebounding
consistant defense

[QuadHog]

Defense wasnt terrible yesterday,give Auburn credit,they were going to live or die with the 3.They hit some that were defended as well as you could hope for.Rebounding is a concern,although I dont care who is getting them.Truth be known,with a running start,Courtney can probaly out jump about anybody on the team.Our interior defense is my biggest fear.I think that is why Cox is playing more,he keeps his guy in front of him with a good forearm.I think since he is a walk-on white kid,the refs dont pay as much attention to him and he gets to play a little more physical than some of the others.Not being an ass on that either,I really think thats part of it.

[The_Iceman]

Why does it take til the second half for us to play with a purpose?

If we played the first half like we play in the second half, these last few games wouldn't be close.

[fred ziffel]

world hunger

[hogtilicus]

I agree with Iceman. Start playing in the first half!