Suckathon.

It just doesn’t get any worse for Auburn than Tuesday night. The Tigers were out-muscled, outrun, and outplayed by their eternal enemy, the Crimson Tide, and all on their home floor.

The defeat was the most lopsided home loss Auburn has ever suffered at the hands of Alabama in the long history of the rivalry, and that 18-point margin stands as the worst the Tigers have been beaten by anyone in the newly minted Auburn Arena.

It was a frustrating game from the outset that sent the home crowd on an emotional roller coaster. There was the frenzied riot after a poorly officiated first half. There were the demoralized fans heading quietly for the exits in the final minutes.

Auburn played fast, loose, and uncharacteristically following last Saturday’s high-scoring game against Mississippi State. What was fluid ball movement in transition and smooth finishes at the rim in Starkville quickly turned into sloppy ball control and out-of-control drives to the basket against Alabama.

The Tigers started the game strong and played within themselves. But when calls from the officials and Auburn’s own free throw shooting began turned south, it was impossible for Auburn to make a run or keep any kind of pace. Alabama’s press bogged the Tigers down on the offensive end all night, and Auburn was seemingly never able to get the ball in transition, which was a huge catalyst in leading the Tigers to their biggest point total of the season in the game prior against Mississippi State.

Auburn’s bench was only able to muster 9 points in the losing effort, and everyone not named Frankie Sullivan combined for just 33 percent shooting from the free throw line. Rob Chubb and Kenny Gabriel both had four turnovers—each was sloppy with the ball down low—and Varez Ward finished with just three points after his career-high 24 last Saturday. Ward turned the ball over six times against Alabama on some out-of-control drives and pushes to the basket that could have one wondering if he’s still trying to feel out how much he has under him in his new legs.

At the end of the day, it was simply a frustrating loss to a bitter—the bitterest—rival, made all the more bitter for being the Tiger’s fourth straight loss to the Crimson Tide. And for Kenny Gabriel, the rest of Auburn’s seniors, and quite possibly December graduate Frankie Sullivan, it was their last chance at beating Alabama on their home floor and leaving their mark on the rivalry.

Going into the game we discussed at length the history of the teams and players on both sides— how their legacies can be shaped by performances on the big stage of Auburn-Alabama games alone. This time around, it was JaMychal Green and Frankie Sullivan who would undoubtedly lead their respective teams onto the floor, and would take ownership of the results in they way they lead their team.

Green’s legacy is solidified as the ultimate Tiger killer and enemy of all things orange and blue, after once again going off against Auburn on Tuesday with a total of 19 points, leading his team in scoring and relishing in the boos that rained down on his team and the officials at the end of the first half and throughout the night. In seven games against Auburn throughout his career, Green has averaged 12.5 points, had 15+ point performances in four of those games, put in a game-winning lay up, and led the Tide to four straight victories over Auburn as an upperclassman.

But no one is going to think much less of Frankie Sullivan either, whose legacy remains much the same as well after scoring a game-high 21 points against the Tide, just as would be expected of Auburn’s warrior shooting guard, who has always seemed to battle through tough times. His personal record against Alabama now sits at 3-2, after missing both of last year’s losses sitting out the season on a medical redshirt. Even in the loss, Frankie left his guts out on the floor… and upon those guts laid a new foundation at Auburn that will hopefully soon return the program to the next level.

But the Tigers and the Tide aren’t finished with each other, not by a long shot, as the rivalry and the season series shifts to Tuscaloosa for a February 29 meeting in Coleman Coliseum. After the proceedings in Auburn Arena on Tuesday night (and some trash talk that won’t be forgotten), the matchup is sure to be even more intense, the stakes for end-of-the-season bragging rights even higher.

First, Auburn will have to find a way to regroup and navigate the rest of its schedule. The Tigers take a road trip to Oxford before returning home to host No. 18 Mississippi State. Auburn is still trying to find a way to win on the road, and at home, after losses to Kentucky and Alabama, the Tigers are going to have to start winning big games against big opponents and ranked competition before the homecourt magic becomes a stigma that Auburn can win every game at home — except for the ones that really matter.

There’s still a lot left to this season—Gators and Bulldogs and a litany of challenges and opportunities. Auburn can’t look past anyone on the schedule and each of its remaining six games has an importance all its own, but one in particular will stand out as a central focus in the home stretch: the Feb. 29 rematch with the Tide. After what happened on Tuesday night — and again, it just doesn’t get any worse than what happened on Tuesday night — there’s really only one thing this team can do to move on as a group and dispel the dark cloud set to hang over them well into the summer and next season. Beat Bama. Sink the Tide. Let them know how it feels to take a beating in their own house from their most bitter rivalry.

And even better, let themselves know what it feels like to give it out.

Photo via Todd Van Emst.

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The last time around.

The story of this season’s hardwood version of the Iron Bowl undoubtedly begins where it left off a year ago, in an erupting Coleman Coliseum with time expiring, the last time Auburn and Alabama faced off.

Then, it was the young, upstart, and short-handed 2010-2011 Tigers trying to pull off the upset in one of the two most important games of the year, and giving the SEC West division champions and SEC tournament No. 2 seed all they could handle in their own house. Auburn was playing under first-year coach in Tony Barbee, without veteran leader Frankie Sullivan, who was injured for the season, and with a starting lineup featuring a junior, a freshman, and three sophomores — one of those a walk-on.

Still, Auburn gave Bama all it could ask for and more for nearly 40 minutes — until a last-second tip in by JaMychal Green with 0:00.3 remaining in the game lifted the Tide to a 51-49 victory. The young Auburn team was already undermanned as it was before it saw big men Rob Chubb, Adrian Forbes, and Kenny Gabriel all foul out of the game down the stretch, until there was no one left to box out or contest Green, who sent Coleman Coliseum into a frenzy, and the Tigers on a long bus ride back home to the Plains with a stinging rivalry loss that they’ve had hanging over them ever since — until today.

But, truthfully, the story of today’s game and this year’s series between the Tigers and the Tide goes back much further than that.

It was four years ago that circles in the high school hoops community in Alabama were captivated by a two-man race for the 2008 title of Mr. Basketball, given to the most outstanding high school basketball player in the state, as voted on by the Alabama Sports Writers Association. The odds-on favorite was an eventual McDonald’s All-American, privileged to play at a private school in the middle of swirling media attention in the high school hoops hotbed of Montgomery — both the capitol of the state of Alabama and the capitol of high school basketball in Alabama. His name was JaMychal Green, and he led St. Jude to class 1A state championships his sophomore and senior seasons, and was recognized by the ASWA as the Class 1A Player of the Year for three consecutive years, in 2006, 2007, and after his senior year in 2008.

The dominating big man playing squarely in the center of attention in Montgomery would have won Mr. Basketball honors easily if it wasn’t for his surprising challenger — a small sharpshooting guard from a tiny 2A public school in Uniontown. He was Frankie Sullivan, and he had three ASWA Player of the Year titles to his own credit, in Class 2A. He led R.C. Hatch to three consecutive 2A state championships, winning his last title with a superhuman performance in the final game of his high school career, leading his team back from an 18-point third quarter deficit by scoring 22 points in the fourth quarter alone to finish with 51 points and a comeback victory in the state championship game his senior year.

That closing performance alone seemingly made it one of the most intriguing races in recent memory of the award, but in the end sports writers in the state elected the headline-grabbing big man from the private school in Montgomery, in what was then the closest Mr. Basketball vote in Alabama since 1992.

Green edged Sullivan for the award, but it was clear then who the best two high school players in state were, and their fates would be intertwined forever. JaMychal Green went on to sign with Alabama. Frankie Sullivan went to Auburn.

Now, four years later, Green is a senior for the Crimson Tide and Sullivan is a redshirt junior. Each has become a veteran leader for his team, and just as the basketball community knew they would way back at the end of their high school careers, each will lead their team onto the court in the biggest basketball game of the year in the state, between Auburn and Alabama.

JaMychal Green has been a Tiger-killer for the Crimson Tide, averaging 11.5 points per game in 6 tries against Auburn in his career, and after scoring over 15 points in 3 of those games and has firmly established himself Auburn basketball’s Darth Vader. Things will be different this season, however, when his counterpart Frankie Sullivan takes the court for the Tigers. Auburn supportershope Sullivan can provide that same offensive firepower after having to sit and watch Green crush his team with that last-second score in Tuscaloosa last year, out with an ACL tear during his medical redshirt season.

But Sullivan and Green won’t be the only players on the court tonight. Two new heavyweights have been added to the fold, both getting to tonight in different ways and holding vastly different places in Alabama basketball lore.

In the last two years, the next big thing to come out of high school hoops in Alabama has been Trevor Lacey, only the second two-time winner in the history of the Mr. Basketball award, winning it in 2010 and 2011. Lacey spurned out-of-state programs like Kentucky to play for the Crimson Tide, and as a true freshman now at Alabama, and depending on where his basketball career takes him, knows he could only have a few chances to make an impact on the Auburn-Alabama rivalry.

And while Alabama went young in bringing in a big-time recruit like Lacey, Auburn went the other way in finding an upperclassman tansfer in Varez Ward. The high-profile transfer point guard could have contended for the title of Mr. Basketball himself during his time at Jefferson Davis — a program that’s one of the four 6A giants that make Montgomery such a hoops hotbed. Varez was overshadowed by (and formed one of the best back-courts you could find with) his teammate Courtney Fortson, who would win the ASWA honor in 2007. Fortson went on to play at Arkansas; Ward to Texas. As fate would have it, Fortson has moved on and made his professional debut with the Clippers earlier this season, while Ward was set back by a devastating knee injury with the Longhorns and has had to return home to the state of Alabama — Auburn, specifically.

But at the end of the day this kind of rivalry game it doesn’t matter where any member of either team comes from or how their legacies are compared in high school basketball circles throughout the state. Instead, on a big stage such as the one tonight, anyone can make an impact and make basketball history in the state of Alabama.

When it comes to the Auburn-Alabama rivalry, everyone in tune with basketball in the state will be watching, every newspaper throughout the state will run a story tomorrow with the hero’s name woven throughout it, and every hardcore hoops fan will remember the performance and bring it up in basketball circles throughout the state for years to come.

For Auburn, tonight is the most important game of the season, and for Alabama, it’s the second-most — and the opposite will be true on February 29 when the series shifts to Tuscaloosa. There’s a pair of games each season, and no matter who you are, you better not lose at home.

Auburn’s chance at Alabama at home is tonight.

Tonight, the Auburn-Alabama rivalry hits the hardcourt, where legacies from the past and the unseen potential of the future collide. The Tide and Tigers clash, stories are interwoven. For some, entire careers have been built up to the night where they lead their respective team onto the court against their most bitter rival. And regardless of whether the game is decided by a last second tip in or a missed free throw down the stretch, each player’s performance will be remembered — and it will have an effect on how each player is remembered.

Tonight, the rivalry hits Auburn Arena.

Photo via.

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This is the Varez Ward we've all been waiting for.

The high-scoring of Auburn’s 91-88 loss to Mississippi State Saturday afternoon in Starkville was certainly a surprise, especially for Auburn supporters who are used to their Tigers dealing with their fair share of struggles on the offensive end, but also seeing them play a shutdown brand of basketball on defense.

Coming into the game, Auburn ranked dead last in the SEC in points-per-game, and had had a dreadful time scoring in games away from Auburn Arena, averaging 54.8 points in road games on the year. But Auburn had also done a decent enough job, as it has all year, in keeping scores low and finding ways to limit what the opposing team was capable of on offense.

Everything seemed backwards on Saturday, when Auburn’s usual grind-it-out pace and pressure defense gave way to up-tempo play and quick ball movement, leading to a high scoring affair in Starkville. It was a surprising sight for Auburn fans to say the least, to see their Tigers allow the Bulldogs to shoot 60.4% from the field (and 63.2% from behind the 3-point line), but it was just as surprising to see Auburn getting to the rim on offense, finishing plays in breakaway transition, finding different ways to score the ball, and finishing the game with a season-high 88 points.

It was a surprise, but a pleasant surprise, and it was the type of game that Auburn supporters would like to see more of from the Tigers offensively, especially on the road. What Auburn proved on Saturday is that even when they’re unable to control the tempo of a game to a slower pace (or when the game plan is to run with their opponent, which it quite possibly could have been against Mississippi State), they still have the capability of scoring in bunches and keeping up with their opposition, even on the road in a hostile environment.

It was an impressive game in a lot of ways, and it was especially interesting that Auburn was able to score the way it did on the road, where it has struggled so mightily all season. (Do I really need to remind you of the 35-point game total at Vanderbilt?)

But at the end of the day it was a loss, a loss not without its frustrations. Auburn’s play on defense was discouraging, even if it’s possible the Tigers just ran into bizarre atmospheric conditions in Starkville that allowed seemingly all of the Bulldogs’ outside shots to fall. The Tigers had issues with the 2-3 zone that they ran for most of the game, and that zone wasn’t much help on the inside when Auburn needed it, and it didn’t give them the advantage off of the boards that you usually get when putting more bodies around the rim (although that simply could be because so many of Mississippi State’s shots went in.)

With the defense caving almost automatically to the inside presence of Renardo Sidney and Arnett Moultrie, there was almost no perimeter defense for Auburn to speak of, and the Bulldogs made them pay for it.

But despite those and more of its usual issues and customary scoring droughts in the second half, Auburn was able to fight and claw their way back to within striking distance every time Mississippi State made a second-half run to pull away, and the Tigers were able to bring the game down to the last few minutes, which is just about as much as any Auburn supporter could ask for playing against a team that’s playing as well as Mississippi State is, on the road in The Hump. And if nothing else, Auburn fans at least have to be encouraged that the Tigers played by far the best basketball they’ve played on the road all season. It was one of the best games it has played, bar none, on the offensive side.

One of the driving forces behind Auburn’s recent scoring success is point guard Varez Ward’s coming into his own in his last three games. After a week off from practice to heal a quad injury suffered in the Arkansas game (and, incidentally, rest a bum knee and a groin injury that have been nagging him all season) the well-rested Ward returned to score 12 points against Tennessee, 17 points against Georgia, and a career-high 24 points against Mississippi State.

He brings several weapons to the position but withrested legs, Ward has had an extra hop in his cuts, and an extra step in his drive, and he’s providing an added dimension to the offensive attack that the Tigers were missing.. In these last three games, Auburn fans have finally started to see flashes of potential of the Varez Ward they’ve been waiting for — a true point guard that provides a scoring threat all his own, and can bail the offense out of possessions with his dribble-drive by either finishing at the rim or drawing a foul and getting to the rim after the offense has bogged down or broken off of a play.

Healthy Varez Ward is definitely something fans want to see more of in the future; so is the effort seen in how opportunistic the Tigers played with the basketball in their possession on Saturday. Auburn has finally been able to duplicate some of the things they’ve been able to accomplish at home in Auburn Arena on the road. But their next challenge will be to put together a full game, on both the offensive and defensive ends, and find ways to piece together a more complete game, no matter where they play.

If Auburn can do that, they’ll start ending more and more of these games with victories. And that’s definitely something they’re going to want to do in their next game.

It’s the biggest game of the year tonight in Auburn Arena.

Tonight, the Crimson Tide is coming to town.

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Photo via.

12-for-12 from the free throw line? I don't even know who you are any more, Varez.

From the start of the new year to the beginning of conference play in January, Auburn basketball supporters have had the joy and agony of watching two completely different teams take the court — the Auburn Tigers At Home, and the Auburn Tigers On The Road.

In that span, Auburn is 4-1 in Auburn Arena, with their only home loss coming in a hard-fought contest with now the No. 1-ranked Kentucky Wildcats. Tony Barbee and his club have found ways to win all season at home, where the Tigers are 12-1 on the year, and 14-1 when you count two exhibition games.

But just as unexplainable as the magic Auburn seems to find in their own building is how inexplicably lost they appear when they’re not in it. The Tigers are winless, 0-5, since the beginning of Jan. when playing on the road, with some of their worst performances of the season, such as drubbings at Florida State and at Vanderbilt. On the season, Auburn is just 1-8 when playing away from Auburn Arena, that lone win coming against tournament-hosting Hawaii in the Diamond Head Classic over Christmas.

That same trend continued this past week when a sound victory over South Carolina at home couldn’t quite propel the Tigers to a win against Arkansas in Fayetteville. And after falling in the waning moments to the Razorbacks, Auburn let the sting of the loss carry over to their next outing against Tennessee in Knoxville, where the Tigers never mustered the second-half run they needed, and fell convincingly.

But a different Auburn team took the floor this past Wednesday at home against Georgia, a team playing with confidence and effort, a team playing together—cohesively. It’s a sight that has been pleasantly familiar to the home fans at Auburn Arena.

Auburn started the game fighting through one of its familiar scoring droughts, going without a field goal for the first nine minutes of the contest. The Tigers once again looked vulnerable and without more than just one or two dependable, reliable scoring threats. When Frankie Sullivan’s outside shot was off to start the game, Auburn didn’t have much else to lean on until his 3′s finally started to fall with 10:15 to play in the first half.

Auburn found a lot of its offense throughout the night on the dribble-drive of point guard Varez Ward. It’s an element of Ward’s game that has been limited all season due to a groin injury; he’s also still trying to bring his knee back to 100 percent. After Ward injurerd his quad at the beginning of the game against Arkansas, Barbee gave him the rest of the week off from practice. The well-rested Ward responded with a 12-point game against Tennessee and 17 points against Georgia.

(A quick sidebar: If you’re Tony Barbee, you have to start wondering about situations like this and battling fatigue here late in the season, and possibly giving out some similar extra days of rest, especially when you’re dealing with guys like Ward and Sullivan and their repaired knees. These things are always hit-or-miss, and it’s never possible to tell whether that extra spring is going to be in anyone’s step on any given night, but if the days of rest helped Varez as much he said they did in his post-game comments, it has to be something for Barbee to consider.)

But where Ward did most of his damage, oh so surprisingly, is from the free-throw line, where he was 12-for-12 on the night. Ward went into the game shooting 60.9 percent from the foul line, and has struggled there his entire career, so his clutch shooting from the stripe was definitely a pleasant surprise. His effort from the line, coupled with that of Kenny Gabriel, who went 8-for-9 from the charity stripe (and finished with 16 points and 8 boards), helped the Tigers finish 25-for-31 from the line and on the winning end of the game, despite shooting just 33.3 percent from the field.

It was another impressive win at Auburn Arena, where the Tigers have somehow captured some sort of home court magic. That’s not to say that the team turns into a roster of Supermen when it takes the floor at home, but simply that when Auburn is at home, the team plays the way it is supposed to play. All the pieces of the machine seem to function properly. When Auburn is at home, more of Sullivan’s long shots tend to fall, Gabriel has a little more bounce in his leaps, Rob Chubb is a little more decisive in the low post, and Chris Denson’s cuts to the basket are just a little quicker.

Auburn plays the way it plans to play when it’s at home, and that’s with suffocating defense, and with an offense that looks to take advantage of every opportunity given when it has the basketball, regardless of how much time is left in the game or on the shot clock.

It’s when Auburn goes on the road this season when nearly all of those things seem to fall apart, and, as you might imagine, it’s time for Auburn to go on the road once again as they travel to Starkville to take on No. 19 Mississippi State this afternoon at 3 p.m.

Auburn was able to steal one from the favored Bulldogs at home last season, and contain main threats Renardo Sidney and Dee Bost, but things will be a lot different this time around in Starkville, and with Mississippi State’s addition of former Tony Barbee player and UTEP transfer Arnett Moultrie, who is averaging 16.8 points per game for the Bulldogs.

It will be a tough challenge for Auburn, and one of the toughest road tests the Tigers have faced this season. And going into the game, one of Auburn’s first priorities has to be to not do what it did in some of its other tough road tests, like Florida State and Vanderbilt — and that’s absolutely fold right at tip-off.

But Mississippi State is anything but invincible, and Auburn has the potential to play up with them and bring the game down to the last few minutes. It’s just going to depend on which Auburn team is going to show up; the one that plays tight and tough and utilizes its strength, or the team that Auburn fans are accustomed to seeing when the Tigers take to the road, that plays without its rhythm, and without its identity.

And, regardless of a win or a loss, after Saturday afternoon and its match up with Mississippi State, this Auburn team will be able to return home and focus on the next game on the schedule, in Auburn Arena on Tuesday night: Alabama.

Photo via Todd Van Emst.

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These lovely, gymnastics-crazed Auburn fans arrived early last Friday in order to secure the coveted Kylie Shields head.

If the atmosphere against Georgia one week earlier was electric, then last Friday night’s gymnastics meet against Bama was on fire. The Georgia meet set an AU gymnastics attendance record: 4,508. Friday night added 2,791 to that for a packed house (and new record) of 7,299 fans. The atmosphere never died down. We’re talkin’ edge of the seat entertainment from start to finish.

Both squads started strong and were only separated by 0.175 points midway through through the meet, which came down to the wire—as in, down to the last girl on each team’s last event: Bri Guy on the floor for Auburn and Ashely Priess on the beam for Bama. A mistake earlier on the beam had Bama in a precarious position. Had one of three Tide gymnasts fallen, including Priess, Toomer’s would have been rolled. Instead, Priess scored a 9.925, the best on beam for the night. Bri Guy took the floor and also nailed her routine with a 9.925.

Bama wound up with a score of 196.250 to Auburn’s 196.275. But Bama challenged the score (typical) and eventually got a 196.325: 0.075 point difference. Auburn’s score was a season high and, despite the loss, moved them up three spots in the rankings. Since regular season losses mean nothing to Alabama, the grounds are set for a post-season rematch for all the marbles.

But first? Arkansas. Last Friday it was at home against the defending nation champs. This Friday it’s on the road against current No. 2. at Arkansas. That makes three weeks in a row that Auburn will face a team ranked in the top six. Fun! The meet starts at 7 p.m. You can relive the good times when it airs on FSN, Feb. 11 at 8 p.m.

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Limber Lauren Lane's lumbar limbo.

An Auburn gymnastics meet is something different from most things you’ve seen in sports. There isn’t a ball, a bat, a club, or a racquet. There are hand grips and chalk powder. Stripe-suited referees are replaced by judges seated at a scoring table. Gone is the green of a playing field or the reflective shine of a smooth hardcourt… because its covered by massive, unfurled mats and chalky balance beams.

But the passion’s the same.

The pride is there, the heart is there, and the sights, and the sounds, and the colors. The crowd is just as lively, the cheers are just as bold, the orange just as orange, the navy just as blue.

It’s that spirit — the spirit of Auburn, the spirit of competition. The drive, the fight, the struggles, the successes, and the failures that bring people together the way only sports can. It’s all still there when the Auburn gymnasts take the floor.

And it will be there even more tonight in Auburn Arena the 16th-ranked Tigers try to snap a 103-meet losing streak to 6th-ranked, defending national champions: Alabama.

Auburn is hot off of posting its highest scoring total of the season in last Friday’s meet against No. 7 Georgia. Despite dropping that meet to the “Gym Dogs,” the Tigers still come into tonight’s meet with the momentum that comes from having on one of your best performances of the year go down in front of 4,508 fans, a record-setting crowd for gymnastics in the new arena. The record should probably stand for a few more hours before the house is packed for tonight’s throwdown with the Tide.

It’s not going to be easy for the Tigers to snap the losing streak tonight, because after, oh, 100 or so consecutive losses, it’s not much of a streak. It’s a marathon. Auburn is going to have to pretty much be perfect and, realistically, they’re going to have to hope for a couple of slips from the Tide. But if Auburn can run mistake-free, and if the Tigers can get another beast-mode performance from their senior leader and best all-arounder Kylie Shields, they could very well bring the meet down to the beam and the floor, the final two events.

If you go to the meet tonight you’ll see two bitter rivals competing. But it’s different: There’s an overtly positive vibe—and it isn’t forced or insincere, either. When an opponent slips there is no celebration or cheer as for a penalty flag. When an Bama girl doesn’t stick her landing, there won’t be a “Push’em Back” chant (though when an Auburn girl sticks her Heisman pose, you’ll definitely hear boos). And you’re not going to see a gym coach argue the judges’ tallies like they would argue balls and strikes.

There’s also a certain level of chaos on the floor that makes it that much more approachable. The invisible wall that seemingly makes the football field at Jordan-Hare Stadium sacred and unreachable, and the Auburn Arena court during basketball games untouchable, are all barriers that are pulled down for a gymnastics meet, traded for just the right amount of disorganization, a din to where you feel you could almost overhear coaches on the floor, and kids running notes over between the two judges’ tables.

The focus of attention is all on the action — the motions, the movements, the girls. There is no constant emphasis on the score, or the stats, or how many events are left, like the Fox Box and computer graphic scoreboards have trained us to look for. Instead, the crowd can just focus on the sights and sounds, the competitors and the routines, and the cheers and their neighbors. It’s the traits that you would usually consider as what would make it less of a spectator sport that makes gymnastics an even better one.

But while an Auburn gymnastics meet does appear to be different from beginning to end than nearly all other athletic events at the school, what it has in common with the others — the passion, the spirit, and the competition — it has in spades. They may call it a “meet” as opposed to a “game,” but all the while it’s hard to believe that neither team is actually ever doing the same event at the same time. And with competition so involved and with momentum so evident, sometimes it gets easy to forget that nobody is playing defense.

And at the end of the meet, both squads huddle up and stand on the mat in the center of the floor, like boxers in the middle of the ring after a heavyweight fight, awaiting the PA announcer to call out the judges’ final tallies.

The field is replaced by a mat, the uniforms are exchanged for one-piece tights, and the helmets are swapped for colorful hair bows. And instead of a thick line of eye black there’s thick, black eye liner—but it’s all the same. It’s war paint.

And tonight, it’s all the same. It’s Alabama.

Photo via Van Emst.

Justin Lee is a third generation Auburn man. In his spare time, he is junior-ish at Auburn, majoring in journalism. Curse him at auborangej@gmail.com.

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Congrats, KG.

Monday night against Bethune-Cookman, Auburn played the best basketball game it’s played all year.

And no, that’s not a lame New Year’s joke. The 67-41 win at home was truly the most complete and well-rounded game that Auburn has put together this season.

Obviously the big news of the night came with Kenny Gabriel recording the first triple-double in Auburn basketball history, blocking 10 shots and bringing down 13 boards to go along with his 24 points. It’s a tremendous accomplishment all on its own, something that years has never been done in 106 years. But, perhaps best of all, it’s something that couldn’t have happened to a better member of this team. Regardless of how the rest of the season plays out, the senior has cemented his legacy at Auburn as a team leader of the first group that took the floor in the new Auburn Arena, and as someone who stuck through coaching changes and hard times and continued to lay it all out there for his school — and now, fittingly, he’ll be forever etched into the record books.

The rest of the Auburn Tigers played a very balanced and complete game on Monday night as well. Frankie Sullivan continued his consistent play with a 9-point and 5-rebound performance, and continues to be a dependable anchor for Auburn on both ends of the floor, even on his off nights. Varez Ward dished 10 assists and laid down a textbook point guard performance, despite not scoring a point all game. And Chris Denson finished with 10 points off the bench, where he’ll likely continue to play, providing a spark for Auburn as the Tigers’ sixth man.

Meanwhile, Noel Johnson played cleanly in his first start of the season, and for the first time this year Auburn fans got a taste of the starting lineup they were picturing all of last season, when they watched Sullivan, Johnson, and Ward sit on the end of the bench in warm-ups, out due to injury, or NCAA transfer rules, or, in Ward’s case, both.

In the end, the Tigers played the excellent lock-down defense that their coach preaches, they found ways to score with consistency on offense, and their big-time players all played within themselves and fulfilled their individual roles. Again: Auburn played some of the best basketball that is has played all season, and it couldn’t have picked a much better time to start playing strong.

It comes at a surprising time, after the Tigers looked to have only taken several steps back a game ago in its narrow 78-75 escape against Georgia Southern. Tony Barbee laid it into his team then that they had a long way to go before conference play began. It was a wonder then if the team was going to be as prepared as possible before their SEC opening at Vanderbilt on Saturday. One win against Bethune-Cookman at home isn’t going to change much, but at least the Tigers have seen what they’re capable of here in January, and after having not won anything convincingly since before the Hawaii trip, it’s nice too that they won’t carry a drought into conference play.

Instead, Auburn is 10-3, undefeated at home, and that’s how their season will stand when they take on Florida State in Tallahassee tonight in the Tigers’ final non-conference game of the season.

Auburn has had the Seminoles circled as one of its hardest non-conference tests. Auburn’s schedule has been very kind, and while a solid win/loss record and that invaluable experience is great in developing a culture of winning, Auburn hasn’t had too many chances to test their mettle against big-time foes this season. Auburn’s inexperience was likely evident in it’s lost to Long Beach State in Hawaii, as the battle-tested 49ers, who played one of the nation’s toughest out-of-conference schedules, seemed more prepared to play—and win—in the spotlight than Auburn did.

When all is said and done, tonight’s contest could prove very pivotal in telling just how successful the first half of this season has been. Auburn has proven themselves at home, posting a 9-0 record in Auburn Arena, with consistent wins coming against teams the Tigers were in position to beat, and with a quality victory over South Florida out of the Big East. Auburn’s loss in its first road game of the season at Seton Hall (who just knocked off No. 8 UConn) was no surprise, and neither was its holiday tournament loss to Long Beach State. However, the biggest disappointment of the season thus far has to have been Auburn’s loss to UTEP in that same tournament’s consolation game.

But Auburn has a chance ahead of them to hold their head just as high as they could have had they returned from Hawaii as the conquering, 2 out of 3 heroes by offing the Seminoles tonight on the road. They were able to beat Florida State a year ago at home in one of their most memorable games last season, behind a spirited (albeit temporary) return by Frankie Sullivan. The Seminoles will be ready to avenge that loss on their own home floor—although, this time around, they’re without last year’s star Chris Singleton.

It’s not a likely victory for Auburn just yet, but it’s a winnable game. And, suddenly, if Auburn is able to top Florida State tonight, they’ll be steamrolling into conference play at 11-3, and capping what would have to be considered one of the most successful non-conference seasons Auburn has had in years.

But if the Tigers fall in Tallahassee, they won’t have much time to dwell on the defeat before traveling to Vanderbilt on Saturday.

Regardless of how the schedule has played out for the Tigers thus far, January is here, and beginning with Florida State, the toughest tests on the schedule have arrived. Auburn’s SEC schedule begins this weekend, and the Tigers have one last chance to prove that they’re prepared for it. Vanderbilt and Kentucky are right around the corner, whether the Tigers are ready for them or not.

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"The Beach" versus "The Blunder."

Just when things were looking up for the Auburn basketball team in the Diamond Head Classic, the Tigers set for themselves a new series of low standards for the season against Long Beach State in the tournament semifinals.

Perhaps the best part of Auburn’s victory over Hawaii in the tournament opener two nights ago was the way the Tigers were able to trudge through adversity when not playing their best and still find a way to win. Against Long Beach State, however, Auburn once again fell victim to one of their same, familiar self-implosions.

Frankie Sullivan’s superhuman effort was enough to keep the Tigers from being run out of the building for the majority of the game, but it wasn’t enough to keep the score competitive when the 49ers made their close-out run down the stretch. Sullivan alone scored 22 points, while the rest of the team combined to score just 21, as Auburn fell 64-43.

Other than Sullivan, Auburn was a combined 7-of-41 from the field on the night. An Adrian Forbes tip-in was the only non-Sullivan field goal of the first half.

That’s not to say that games like last night’s don’t happen. Kenny Gabriel rolled his ankle early in the contest and wasn’t the same when he returned. Rob Chubb found himself in foul trouble early, and eventually fouled out of the game. And, sometimes, shots just don’t fall.

But Auburn is starting to develop an ugly habit of getting into foul trouble, and for the second straight night Rob Chubb, Adrian Forbes, and Kenny Gabriel all finished with four or more fouls. And for the second straight night, Auburn was on the short end of a huge discrepancy in free throw shooting. The Tigers attempted just six free throws compared to Long Beach State’s 25, just a night after earning just 11 attempts to Hawaii’s 23.

Meanwhile, Auburn finds themselves nearing the end of non-conference play without any truly dependable scoring outside of Frankie Sullivan. Kenny Gabriel will surely find his way out of the funk that he’s been in over the last three games, but Auburn could certainly be helped by that happening sooner rather than later. Meanwhile Varez Ward, who at one time accounted for a huge chunk of Auburn’s points by either scoring himself or distributing the basketball, hasn’t had a 5-assist game since starting the season with four (consecutively).

Tony Barbee continues to mix and match his personnel, too, but any new combinations certainly weren’t of any use against Long Beach State. Allen Payne hasn’t seen the floor at all since logging just nine minutes against South Florida, even after Kenny Gabriel went down with injury in the first half last night. Josh Wallace, also, entered the game for only three minutes, in favor of Tony Neysmith, who made his season debut in the second half after returning from suspension.

Josh Langford, also returning from the same suspension, made his first start of the year. Noel Johnson made his Auburn debut last night and worked his way into the flow of the things on the court after being limited by NCAA transfer rules and a hand injury. And freshman Cedric McAfee ended up playing 12 minutes, by far the most time he’s had all season, as Barbee tinkered his lineup in favor of either the prospect of gaining experience or on-setting fatigue from the Hawaii game the night before.

It isn’t that Auburn fans should be upset about the Tigers losing to a very talented and heavily favored Long Beach State team. What’s troubling is the way they did it. They were nearly run out of the arena in the same way they fell to Seton Hall earlier in the year. Shots weren’t falling then for Auburn, either, and when breaks weren’t going the Tigers’ way, there wasn’t much they could do but fold.

What Auburn has to do before conference play rolls around in January is find some consistency—and perhaps more importantly, find someone dependable other than Frankie Sullivan that can take some responsibility in scoring the basketball on the offensive end.

The good news for Auburn is that everything won’t go wrong for the Tigers every single night. In games where one of the best all-around players on the team doesn’t go down with injury just minutes into the contest, and in games where not every single one of their bigs is in foul trouble early and often, and in games where the Tigers actually get a lucky bounce or two, Auburn will be able to play within their confines and will have the athletic ability and the pieces to be able to play up to almost anyone on their schedule.

But in those games where not everything goes right for the Tigers, Auburn will have to find something to default back to and lean on, and at least give themselves a chance to compete, instead of getting blown out by 20 by every quality opponent they come across. And in that, Auburn will find the takeaway it needs to bring home from this loss.

It’s not the end of the world for these Auburn Tigers; they still have one more game to play in Hawaii, and perhaps the most important one of the series on the tournament’s final day in their third-place game against Tony Barbee’s former team.

Auburn has Christmas Eve off, but is right back in action Christmas Day against UTEP at 6:30 p.m. CST on ESPN2.

With a win in the consolation game, Auburn could officially finish as the bronze medalists in the Diamond Head Classic, and could just as importantly return home with a 2-1 record in the tournament and rightfully consider their trip to Hawaii a big success. Win against UTEP, and Auburn could have yet another solid non-conference victory under its belt, and could once again earn valuable experience against quality competition as December comes to a close. What Auburn has to do now is put the Long Beach State loss behind them, and re-focus their attention to UTEP… and to not letting another one slip away from them so easily.

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"Mele Kalikimaka is Kenny Gabriel's way to say Merry Christmas A very Merry Christmas, a very, very, Merry, Merry Christmas to you..."

Auburn fans who stayed up late Thursday night and into early Friday morning to see their Tigers compete in the first round of the Diamond Head Classic were treated to a thrilling game and a 65-62 victory over the home standing Hawaii Rainbow Warriors.

Things seemed all but lost for the Tigers when they faced their first deficit of the game with under nine seconds to play. Having never trailed, a series of turnovers, a back-court violation, and missed free throw opportunities led to a Hawaii bucket that gave the Rainbow Warriors a 62-61 lead and seemingly sunk the Tigers’ chances. But in Auburn’s final, desperation possession, Varez Ward ran the length of the court before cutting the basket, drawing defenders, and dishing to Rob Chubb for an emphatic go-ahead slam. A steal on the ensuing inbounds pass and two Chris Denson free throws later, the Tigers escaped with victory.

The win is Auburn’s first away from Auburn Arena, and brings the their overall record to 8-1. But more importantly in the context of this season, the win means that these Tigers won’t be returning from Hawaii and this pivotal tournament series completely empty handed. They’ll have invaluable experience and confidence in close game situations moving forward.

Auburn certainly could have won the game more convincingly, especially for only having trailed for six or so seconds in the entire game, and for having led at times throughout by as many as 11. But Auburn faced adversity the whole night, with each of its big men battling foul trouble right from tip off. The Tigers were constantly at a disadvantage, getting calls and getting to the free throw line. With just 43 seconds to play, Hawaii had attempted 22 free throws from the line, while Auburn had attempted just 5.

Moreover, Auburn was matched up against the tournament hosts, on their own court and in front of their own fans. When you consider jet lag and all of the other outside factors surrounding this game, it’s no wonder that the Rainbow Warriors were able to hang around. Consider them again, and you realize that the Tigers were very fortunate to come away with a hard-fought victory.

The trio Frankie Sullivan, Kenny Gabriel, and Rob Chubb led the way for the Tigers. Sullivan led the team with 17 points and pulled down 7 rebounds, while Gabriel scored 13 and brought down 9 boards. But the hero of the day was Chubb, who scored 14 points in the game, with 10 in the second half alone, including the go-ahead jam with 3.9 seconds to play.

With the win, Auburn advances to the semifinals of the tournament, and will play their second of three games in three days tonight against Long Beach State at 10 p.m. CST on ESPN2.

Long Beach State topped a depleted Xavier team— still without four of its players, suspended after the brawl that took place in their game against Cincinatti—to earn their spot in tonight’s matchup against Auburn. The winner/loser of this semifinal will take on the winner/loser from the opposite semifinal, between Kansas State and UTEP, on the third and final day of the tournament.

The Long Beach State 49ers aren’t a joke; their convincing win over Xavier have proven themselves to (so far) be the second best team in this tournament behind Kansas State.

The 49ers have 5 losses on the season, but most of those have come against high-quality competition, like No. 4 Louisville, No. 5 North Carolina, No. 12 Kansas, and San Diego State, a Sweet Sixteen team a year ago, in overtime. Meanwhile, Long Beach State boasts convincing victories against No. 15 Pittsburgh and, obviously, No. 14 Xavier just yesterday.

To make a run at Long Beach State, and a run at the finals in this tournament, Auburn will have to find their matchups early and hang around with the 49ers until the very end of the contest, where they can perhaps can pull some similar late-game theatrics and come away with what would surely be considered an upset. Depth coming off of the bench will be crucial for Auburn, especially a day after a wire-to-wire battle. Guys like Allen Payne, who did not play yesterday but has plenty of experience under his belt, could be huge for Auburn when the rest of Tony Barbee’s forwards start to lose their legs.

Tonight, Auburn will have an even better chance, on an even bigger stage on ESPN2 and in the semifinals of tournament basketball, to make a statement and to prove some things to the world and to themselves. Auburn will have the opportunity once again to play with passion. If they can find a way to play up against and beat Long Beach State, they could be looking at the opportunity to play against an NCAA tournament-bound team in a championship matchup that would have to be considered one of the biggest non-conference games the Tigers have had in years. But if they come up short, Auburn could still be set for an intriguing matchup in their third game of the series against Tony Barbee’s former team.

Either way, this tournament has plenty left in store for Auburn. And, either way, it’ll be well worth staying up late again.

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And things only got better.

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