I’ve watched some of Auburn Basketballs best play there. Barkley, Person, Ford, etc… Some good ones from other teams too…Sprewell..Shaq

I am glad we are getting better facilities, I would love to put a better product on the floor. Can Lebo do this?
If not who can that will come to Auburn…let’s start a list

when basketball was a whole lot of fun. I was a freshman for the 98-99 season with Porter, Smith, Chilliest, Mamadou, Fishback, Robinson, Pohlman, Sharp. Those are some of my best memories from college. I was hooked and made it to every home basketball game my college career except one, and many away games. Hell, I even went to Nashville on a Wednesday night before a Thursday test. Of course, the football team was 3-8 my freshman year, so we had to find something to cling to.
Jay, you are absolutely right. When that old barn that my dad helped build gets hoppin’, it is a great place to be. I hope Lebo can pull things together for the final stretch and get some butts in the seats. Seeing those guys try so hard only to come up short time and time again makes me sad. I’m glad to see they finally won a close one.
For any of you who regularly attended basketball games from 98-02, I was the ring leader for “the beach.” There is no reason for the name. We just wanted to wear Hawaiian shirts in February. And yes, the sign, shirts, and crazy hats went with us to Starkville and Columbia. Damn, that was fun.

that if you look at his W-L record its not what we should expect and that he would or should be gone at the end of the season. But I keep watching what he does with his talent which in my mind is far less than the W-L record would indicate. I would like to see him make it for a couple of seasons with the new facility to see if he can recruit some top talent into AU. As far as I am concerned his coaching is outstanding but his recruiting is lacking…..would that change with the new facility? It would have to help but how much is the mystery. At the end of the day I am prone to say let him stay until he has at least one class recruited to the new facility to see if there is improvement.

I wasn’t a big fan when they hired him, and zero postseason games in five seasons is just not cutting it. Every now and then, the team puts it all together and gets a huge win (think the 22-point win over Arky in Fayettenam). But most of the time, they just suck (think the 3-point escape at home against UT-Pan Am, a transitional D-1 school that we should have beaten by fifty). I’d say we should fire him, but I’m not sure the timing is right with us paying our old football coach $6 million, our new coaching staff at least $3 million (just guessed, to be honest), and our country in a crappy economy. If we do decide to let Lebo go, we probably won’t have the cash to go after a big name guy, so we’d have to hope to hit the jackpot with an up-and-coming superstar coach from a lesser league (a la Bruce Pearl).

…if Lebo was dismissed if Bobby Knight would profess interest like he’s done with the Georgia and Alabama jobs.

That would keep Jacobs on his toes, don’t you think?

What, we cannot ask for better than a no postseason win from our coach now? Hell, not even an NIT birth has come around with Lebo as far as I know. Look, there is a culture of losing with Lebo. If there wasn’t, we wouldn’t struggle on the men’s court like we do. I understand not being a beast every year in the SEC. Yet, am I being too much of an ass to ask for more than a three point victory over a team that ABC said was completely over matched and some Alabama highschool teams would have a legitimate shot of beating them?

We don’t need to go after another coach because Alabama and Georgia are doing the same thing? Should we not go after recruits when Alabama and Georgia are going after recruits? The truth is that we accept this kind of thing for our basketball team. I happen to love basketball, loved Cliff Ellis, and I have always wanted Lebo gone. Furthermore, he has done NOTHING to change my mind. Yes, I have an incredibly easy time not liking the guy. He makes excuse after excuse about not winning. Even if he changed his tune now, it wouldn’t change the culture of losing he has created at Auburn. He doesn’t think he’ll get the top recruits, so I have to wonder if he really tries that hard to go after them.

He tries really hard. Well, that’s great-he tries really hard. Results are results and he hasn’t produced. Lebo should be gone now and should have never been hired in the first place. Never, do I openly accept mediocrity. Lebo hasn’t even been as good as average either. From his numbers, he is below average. I find that unacceptable.

A little harsh on Lebo, I guess. Haha I’m definitely a fence-rider on him — can’t decide. I was ready to write him off before the win over Tennessee. I would HOPE we can beat arkansas at home, considering we beat them by 22 on the road last month (the worst loss ever for arkansas at their bud walton arena). If he makes the NIT as a host team this year, then I’d say give him ONE more year. Then next season he would have to make the NCAA tourney. If not, then bring in a new coach for a new arena in 2010-11. War Eagle! BEAT the hogs (again).

……Basketball was BAD. REALLY bad. I’d be sitting up high in the pep band, watching dismal performance after dismal performance. We had this stringy haired coach who thought that every time a media mike was in his face, it was time to do his Hee-Haw audition. The guy told great folksy jokes, and could make you laugh, but he seemed to have no clue how to put a basketball team together.

…..In the days before the shot clock and the 3 point line, your front line guys were REALLY important. We had 3 that couldn’t run, couldn’t jump, couldn’t shoot. (Banks, Lockhart, Valavicious…) Our offense was basically a combination of the High Stack and the 4 Corners. You’d have games where the final score was in the 40s for both teams. In the dim, foggy light of the Beave, it was easy to go to sleep at the half…

……We had presidents as wacky/crazy as Gogue, in those days, too. They ran Shug off. Then they ran Barfield off, and botched his replacement hire (Dooley) so badly, that Lowder and Co. were seen as a serious management upgrade. Nobody gave a flip about basketball, though, so the skinny country comedian stayed on, year after year. Finally , when Pat Dye started whipping Bama’s butt, the Auburn nation looked at their basketball coach, and asked, “Why can’t you whip that clown in the plaid jacket?”

……Pretty soon, we were ready to run the basketball guy off, too. He put together another losing regular season, and announced his own resignation, effective at the end of the year. Somehow, after that, with a couple of talented young guys, he put together a 4-game win streak though the SEC Tournament, and went deep into the Big Dance.

……That coach was Sonny Smith, and had we dusted him off like we’re fixing to do to Lebo, we’d have never had the likes of Chuck Person and Charles Barkley. Think, people! Who are we going to replace Lebo with? I’m with Todd. Another year, at least. The guy knows his strategy. I’m eager to see how the rest of the year unfolds…

He was what we thought he was and we let him off the hook? There is nothing wrong for going after someone who is good. What about the guy out there at Fairfax. If we could win out there, couldn’t he win at Auburn? Is Beard Eves Collesium just that bad? I think Montevallo would have a good shot at beating Auburn this year.

Usually, you have a point and you’re pretty on…this time, you’re totally off basis my friend. Okay, so who do we wait on? There will never be top coaches out there without other teams in contention for them. Until we’re willing to get in there and mix it up with everyone else, we’re not going to be any good. I do care about Auburn basketball very much by the way. That’s why I want someone else. Lebo is not the man to get it done. Legend has a point…this time I agree. I rarely agree with Legend so I have to hit myself and make sure I’m disagreeing with Todd and agreeing with Legend. Yep, I am!

Wasn’t Mike Anderson black?

I just remembered it honestly. I didn’t even remember much about it, and until the Turner Gill issue, race didn’t even come to mind. Now it looks more suspicious and I never thought about him being black until now. Honestly before, I was too nieve on the whole thing and never thought AU saw any difference in skin color. That, however, was before I knew about Lowder and his control and how he doesn’t seem to be so racially progressive to put it mildly. The whole thing just seems all too coincidental if you ask me.

“I, like God, do not believe in coincedences.” I cannot state it any better than one of my all time favorite movies.