Reese Dismukes: ground zero for the next serious wave of Iron Bowl trash talk.
The krootin’ itch. It’s two months since Signing Day and almost as long since the great (and delightfully satisfying) Spencer Region hullabaloo, so it feels like it’s about time for the krootin’ mill to fire up again. I was going to devote a whole post to scratching that particular itch, when I realized it was just going to be nothing but links to recent visitors saying nice things to the Auburn Sports Blog.
Seriously, take your pick: Georgia tackle Watts Dantzler, Mississippi athlete Jermaine Whitehead, Sweet Water LB Chris Landrum (who declared Auburn his leader), Georgia QB C.J. Uzomah, or North Carolina athlete Kris Frost.
But the most intriguing recent visitor is Reese Dismukes, the Spanish Fort center who’s slated to announce his decision between Auburn and Alabama April 21. But we might get a sneak preview on the 17th. Back to Matthews:
Friday was Dismukes second visit to Auburn in a week. He was at Alabama Monday and may return to each school at least once more before making a decision.
“I will probably visit Alabama again and maybe come back up here for A-Day or over there for A-Day. I’m not sure,” he said.
Both Auburn and Alabama are holding their A-Days on Apr. 17.
By that point Dismukes will have seen both campuses plenty of times; it seems likely that wherever he’s visiting for A-Day will be the school he picks a few days later.
And which school will that be? Surprisingly, there really doesn’t seem to be any solid read on Dismukes’ plans at this point. Auburn may have a slight edge–some Auburn people seem to think so, anyway–and that Dismukes canceled his February commitment announcement to the Tide seems like an indication that he’s got at least a few second thoughts about going to Tuscaloosa. But it’s too close to call right now.
If Auburn does pull in their second in-state top-flight offensive line recruit who’d already set a date for their commitment to ‘Bama, however … well, that’s going to be just peachy keen.
Elsewhere on the QB front, national recruit Christian Lemay is visiting–check out the offer list–and just so you know, Kiehl Frazier’s real, real good.
March Madness, distilled to a photo. Behold:
That’s the crosstown crowd at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse, during the Bulldogs’ semifinal victory and not–unfortunately–last night’s heart-rending defeat*. So maybe it’s from the previous news cycle rather than this one, but there’s three dozen different things I’m going to remember about Butler’s run–you’re lucky this isn’t a post listing all of them–and the two girls hugging in the front row and the woman on the left who can’t even believe it are two of them. (Via @judasdac.)
Another thing I’m going to remember: that the single best defensive player in this entire tournament was BU’s Ronald Nored, a sophomore from Homewood. Nored shut down, in succession, Syracuse’s Andy Rautins, Kansas St.’s Jacob Pullen, and Mich. St.’s Durrell Summers–pro prospects one and all. Gee, you think Auburn could have used him? You think they could have used Tony Easley, the best post player and double-digit scorer for the Murray St. team that beat Vandy and took Butler to the wire? He’s from Auburn. What about Louis Dale, the Altamont product who wound up playing lead guard for the Cornell team that shredded Temple and Wisconsin?
For Auburn’s basketball team, I don’t think “in-state recruiting” is about pulling in one-and-done prospects like Demarcus Cousins. It’s about finding overlooked, worthwhile gems that the Kentuckys and Floridas don’t, and this tournament has proven that Jeff Lebo did a right lousy job of it. I know Tony Barbee’s going to aim high in his recruiting search (and he should), but he’ll do himself a world of good if he can find the next Ronald Nored, too.
Speaking of the Tournament. Phillip Marshall is gung ho about the 96-team expansion. I love me some P-Marsh, you know I do, but this is like being gung ho about scabies. He writes:
The idea that adding 32 teams will water down the field just isn’t accurate. The truth is that adding 32 teams will strengthen the field. What waters down the field now is those No. 16 and No. 15 seeds that couldn’t win if their opponents played with three players instead of five.
OK, first, seeing as how a couple weeks back Villanova needed the friendliest possible whistles to survive 15th-seeded Robert Morris with five players on the court, somehow I don’t think they’d have managed it with three. Second, even when 15 and 16 seeds aren’t very good, that’s a good thing–it means earning a 1 or a 2 seed has actually given the higher seed a competitive advantage and rewarded them for their excellent season. Given that the No. 1 complaint about the current tourney is that it nullifies the regular season in favor of a series of coin flips, isn’t this a good thing? Marshall continues:
Every year, teams with the potential to make a serious run in the tournament are left at home. Mississippi State was one of those teams this year. Auburn was one of those teams last year. Every year, champions of good mid-major conferences are left at home because, though they proved over the season they were the best teams in their leagues, they lost in their conference tournaments.
The second point is one I (quite obviously) sympathize with, and it’s the one wretched positive I can take out of this disaster. But the NCAA Tournament shouldn’t be in any fashion or form about giving teams a chance to make “a serious run.” It should be about 1. rewarding conference champions with the chance to play for a title 2. rewarding excellent teams that aren’t conference champions with their chance to play for a title. 2009 Auburn was a good team, but championship-caliber? No. Those Tigers and this year’s Bulldogs had every chance to establish themselves as that kind of team and they failed. In no way does Auburn’s exclusion or this year’s MSU team necessitate gutting the heart of the best single sporting event this country has ever produced.
BlAUgosphere. Hey, look, Phillip Lolley has his own cooking blog. He really wants to teach you how to bake Oreo Creme Pie. It’s definitely not the boys at the Auburner arriving late with this year’s April Fool’s gag. Mmmm …. Oreos. And cussedness.
Elsewhere, PPL has a bushel of random Auburn baseball notes, Will conjures a theme song for Cam Newton, JRS responds to the McNabb trade (and Jason Campbell demotion) with the appropriate, uh, zeal, and Jay finds spring practice a “snoozer” with the media practice blackout and information at such a premium. (Me? Yeah, I wish practice was open, no, I don’t think the blackout is necessary, but what Gene Chizik has believed has been best for his football team has looked like what has been best for them in nearly every instance so far. If he thinks it’s that important, we’re not really in position to argue, are we?)
That’s crazy talk. Unless it isn’t. Tony Barnhart says the Big Televen might expand to 16 teams by snatching away half the Big East. My gut response is that this will happen when cows build a supercomputer that runs on cud, but that was also my response when first told that the NCAA might go to 96 teams, and look where we are now. Which is why you have to at least take Barnhart semi-seriously when he says the SEC might also look to go to 16 teams in response.
So just for fun, my quickie take on what four schools I add:
1. Georgia Tech. Duh.
2. Clemson. Also duh.
3. Louisville. Wishy-washy academically, outstanding athletically. They should have joined up long ago. (The major metro area is a plus.)
4. Florida St. I’m tempted to say screw ‘em, they should have joined when they had the chance before, but that football team could add a lot of zest to things.
Etc. As if I wasn’t already afraid enough of that Thursday night trip to Starkville, their defensive line finally looks repaired. At least Arkansas’s defense is the same-ol’ same-ol’ … Auburn gymnast Krissy Voss has won one of just two community service awards given out by the SEC … I love the Internet.
*I couldn’t sleep last night. I kept seeing the Willie Veasley open looks that didn’t go down … the bricked free throws … the wide-open Shelvin Mack transition 3 that would have tied it at 60 … the Hayward fadeaway, which as it rose I would have bet my television would have gone in … the buzzer-beating heave, which was so teeth-gnashingly close to becoming the most famous basketball shot ever taken. It hurt so much. But was it worth seeing Butler–BUTLER!–inbound with 15 seconds remaining, down a point to Duke in the national freaking championship game?
Oh yeah. A thousand times, yeah.
Photo via al.com.
Remember when Texas said they would listen if somebody came to them about getting out of the Big 12? I think that someone was the SEC. Add GT, Cousin Clem, Texas, and A&M and there’s a balance on where the teams come from as well. That way nobody has to switch divisions. The only other thing to figure out is how to keep the inter-division rivalries (even if only for bama-ut and Auburn-uga) intact.
Saying this with the understanding that a 16-team conference seriously is a pipe dream to start with, it’d be my personal preference to keep the SEC’s geographical footprint roughly in line with its traditional borders. The “Southeastern” part of the name matters to me, and Texas is NOT part of the Southeast. It seems like a silly thing to dither about, but the league would just feel so different with Texas teams (especially when one of them’s one of the sport’s 800-pound gorillas) that Grumpy Old Man Jerry wants them to stay out.
Give me four 16-team SUPER conferences. It would be tough to figure out, but I think it would make it a lot easier to find a champion.
Here’s a wrinkle to keep the mid-majors and Vandys and Dukes of the world happy: Relegation and Promotion, just like they do with soccer in England. If Mississippi State sucks it up, they get booted, and replaced by the winner of one of the Less-SUPER conferences.
Sixteen teams conferences are a horrendous idea. Once upon a time, Auburn had HUGE rivalries with Tennessee and Florida. Of course, we all know that Auburn only plays either team every couple of years now. The split into divisions and the scheduling powers that be in the SEC have taken too much passion from too many rivalries. I don’t think I want to witness a time when Auburn either stays in an 8 team Western division and doesn’t play games against Tennessee or Florida in the regular season or moves to the East and doesn’t play a game against LSU every year. I don’t care if every other conference expands to sixteen or twenty four or thirty two teams. I don’t care if the SEC is no longer the toughest conference in college football, I just want the storied history of the rivalries in this conference to continue on, even if I have to accept that many of those rivalries don’t carry the same weight that they used to.
While writing this, I was assuming, of course, that the SEC wouldn’t be foolish enough to move to a sixteen team format and then mess with Auburn-Alabama or the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry. If THAT were to happen, I’ll stop trying to write poignant blog comments and lead the charge to Richard Arrington Boulevard with torches and pitchforks.
If the SEC ever felt second fiddle to a Big 16 or some other super conference, I’d much rather see them just dump a Mississippi State or South Carolina in favor of a Texas or someone like that.
Actually, that’s a lie. I’d much rather the SEC just not change anything at all. If it ever gets into this crazy, imaginary, Terminator-future-ish struggle over money and power, it seems like it would be just as practical to just buy Conference USA and call it SEC-AAA or something.
Will’s theme song suggestion is OK for now, but come September I’m hoping it’s more like The Gap Band’s “You Dropped the Bomb on Me” (i.e. TOUCHDOWN AUBURN!)!
JF
David: co-sign. I mentioned my choices as a “just for fun” thing, but I’d 10 times rather stay at 12 teams (the ones we’ve got, specifically) than expand.
while it was bad to mess with the Florida and UT rivarly…the consistent LSU rivalry almost made it worth it….almost…I’d definitely be against anything that decreased the # of real games we play every year…Bama,UGA,LSU, Florida and UT…of course with how we play against Ark I guess they are “real” as well. I guess I would trade that one for a A&M or GT.
I like the 12 team format, but money talks. Would the SEC benefit financially to go to 16 teams? We already have two teams in the BCS each year. Big Dollar TV contract. University Presidents would not benefit by going to the 16 team format. the profit of the TV contract would not increase that much. Other Shared revenues would be watered down. It would take a decade to play all the teams in your conference (in football anyway.)
If they did go 16 teams, reach out to GT, Clemson, FSU, Louisville. Most teams will then have their biggest (usually in-state) rival in conference also.
Another team to add instead of Louisville – Miami. Imagine ‘da U’ in the same conference as UF and FSU? We could be even bolder and ditch KY for USF. Then we’d have at least two teams from every state except Florida (four teams!) and Arkansas and Louisiana.
Interesting.
Total conjecture, but imagine the following mixup while adding the new teams (all moves intended to keep as many old rivalries as possible).
Assumptions:
12 game schedule
7 – Division opponents
2 – Two cross conference – different every year (three year cycle)
2 – Cross conference rivalry games (instead of only one)
1 – Out of Conference games (i.e. homecoming pushover)
New Division makeup
Eastern Division (Annual rival games)
Auburn (UA, Ga. Tech)
Tennessee (UA, Vandy)
Florida (FSU, USF)
Georgia (Ga. Tech, FSU)
Clemson (USC, Vandy)
Miami (USF, FSU)
Arkansas (LSU, USC)
MSU (Ole Miss, LSU)
Western Division (Annual rival games)
Alabama (AU, UT)
USF (Florida, Miami)
LSU (Ark, MSU)
Ole Miss (MSU, UF)
Ga Tech (AU, UGA)
Vanderbilt (UT, Ole Miss)
Florida State (UF, UGA)
USC (Clemson, Ark)
Sample Schedule for Auburn
MSU – Late Aug
Clemson – Sep
Tennessee – Sep
Miami – Sep
Arkansas – Sep
LSU (or FSU, or USC) – Oct
Ga. Tech – Oct
Florida – Oct
USF (or Ole Miss, or Vandy) – Oct
La. Tech (H) – Nov
Georgia – Nov
Alabama – Nov
Win 9 or 10 of those and you’ll likely be in the SEC championship game.
Just sayin.
Sullivan013
Cool comment, Sully, and speaking as someone who once argued should schedule Florida as a “nonconference” game, I do think you’re right that it’s either a) not go to 16 teams b) abandon the four nonconference games. (Otherwise, what’s the point in sharing a “conference” with a team you play once every 10 years?) Seeing as how b) means only 6 home games every other year, that’s why a)’s the only option the SEC’s going to look at no matter what the Big 10 does.
I think.
[...] expansion. I wrote not long ago that the Big Ten would expand to 16 teams “when cows build a supercomputer that runs on [...]
[...] (or at the very least, that no one would do it better), and after all it was just a few weeks ago I was complaining that one of Auburn’s big problems under Lebo was not finding the local diamonds in the rough [...]