 |
| |
|
 |
 |
|
|
Posted: Tuesday November 05, 2002 9:15 PM Updated: Wednesday November 06, 2002 7:18 PM Auburn Tigers
The following preview is provided by Blue Ribbon. For the most thorough preview available of the upcoming season, order the 2002-03 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, on sale now at 1-800-775-2518. Team Preview | Blue Ribbon Analysis
Auburn’s four-year streak of winning seasons and postseason tournament appearances came to an abrupt halt last season, the Tigers’ fortunes perhaps turning on the decision of one player to leave the program. It isn’t a stretch to suggest that veteran Auburn coach Cliff Ellis knew his team was in trouble in May 2001, when point guard Jamison Brewer announced he was declaring for the NBA draft. Brewer’s decision stunned Ellis and his assistants, and left them scrambling to find a lead guard. Auburn eventually found a replacement in August in freshman Lewis Monroe, but it would be late in the year before Monroe was ready to start. By that time, Auburn’s season was in shambles. It didn’t help matters any that Lincoln Glass, a senior who had backed up Brewer at the point in 2000-01, got himself suspended for academic reasons and later kicked off the team. The Tigers were hurting so much at the point that the willing, and versatile, Marquis Daniels took a shot at the position. As talented as he is, Daniels isn’t a point guard.
The result of the Tigers’ search for a playmaker was their first losing record and postseason tournament snub since 1996-97. Other injuries and player defections contributed to Auburn’s meltdown in the SEC, a 4-12 record and sixth-place finish in the Western Division. "It was a tough year," Ellis said. "Losing Brewer hurt, and we had to overcome a lot of adversity, more than in any year I can remember as a head coach. But we got to play a lot of young kids. That will help us [in 2002-03]." As Ellis said, Auburn returns several sophomores who were thrown into the mix last season and should benefit from the experience. But any mention of the Tigers’ prospects this year has to begin with the 6-foot-6 senior Daniels (11.6 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 4.1 apg), who finally will get to play his natural position -- small forward -- this season. At various times in his Auburn career, Daniels has played all five positions, but he’s much more at home on the wing, where he won’t have to tangle with bruising power forwards or be swarmed by cat-quick point guards. That should make him much more effective as an offensive threat, especially if his free-throw shooting (63 percent a year ago) improves. Ellis is counting on Daniels to lead a team that will rely heavily on five sophomores and two freshmen. "Marquis was here the year after we won the SEC Championship and finished runner-up in the SEC Tournament and runner-up in our division," Ellis said. "It is going to be important that he takes what he saw and what he learned about leadership and puts it into play." Daniels lost a friend and Auburn lost another wing scorer when Adam Harrington made an ill-advised decision to put his name in the NBA draft pool. He wasn’t chosen. Last season, Harrington came off the bench to lead the Tigers in scoring in the last five regular season games -- all against postseason tournament teams -- and averaged 15.0 points during that span. Ellis hopes 6-foot-4 senior Derrick Bird (10.6 ppg, 3.2 rpg) can replace Harrington’s contributions. Bird finished as the Tigers’ second-leading scorer a year ago, but he was a streak shooter, capable of making seven 3-pointers in a game and not making another for several games. He shot 30 percent from behind the arc, but finished with 47 3-pointers, second most on the team. One-fourth of those 3s were made in two games -- Bird hit 7-of-13 and scored a career-high 26 against Louisiana Tech and made 5-of-9 and scored 24 points against Florida International. Bird was much more consistent as a defender. He was chosen to the CollegeInsider.com All-America Defensive team last year after he held the opponents' top wing scorer to only 6.5 points per game (9.6 points off their collective average) and only 23 percent shooting from the field. Dwayne Mitchell (3.5 ppg, 2.5 rpg), a 6-foot-4 sophomore, Nathan Watson (2.0 ppg, 1.0 rpg), a 6-foot-3 sophomore and 6-foot-4 freshman Steve Leven will provide depth at the wings. Mitchell, who was given a brief tryout at point guard, averaged 17.4 minutes as a freshman while playing in all 28 games and starting 10. He scored a season-high 12 points against Ole Miss. Watson walked on last year and found his way into 15 games. He scored a season-high seven points against both Georgia and McNeese State. Leven averaged 24.4 points, four rebounds and four assists at Laurinburg (N.C.) Institute last year. The native of Sydney, Australia shot 54 percent from the field, 60 percent from 3-point range and 84 percent from the free-throw line. In addition to his shooting touch, Leven can score by attacking the rim with his 39-inch vertical jump. "Steve Leven will give us an addition and more power at the wing because he is an adept shooter," Ellis said. "He is an Australian kid who has a lot of savvy. With Leven being an addition to Bird, Mitchell, Daniels and Watson, we have pretty good wing play." Ellis didn’t stand still in the offseason as he sought to shore up the point guard position. The Auburn staff signed junior college transfer Chris Lollar, a 6-foot junior, to give Monroe some competition. Lollar averaged 13.4 points and 6.1 assists last season at Johnson County (Kansas) Community College. The native of Birmingham, Ala., set Johnson County records for assists in a game (19), season (309) and career (498), and also holds the record for career steals (170). He was the NJCAA Division II National Player of the Year as a freshman. Lollar qualified academically out of high school, but decided to go to junior college to boost his Division I stock. The 6-foot-5 Monroe (2.7 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 2.4 apg), who signed with Auburn last year after receiving a release from his scholarship to Duquesne, returns after playing in 17 games and earning nine starts a year ago. He missed 11 games with a back injury in December and January, and Ellis considered red-shirting him. But desperate for a point guard, Ellis started Monroe in a late-January game against Kentucky, and the youngster held onto the job the rest of the season. His best game came against Mississippi State, when he scored 11 points and handed out five assists. Auburn has good depth in the frontcourt, starting with 6-foot-10 junior center Kyle Davis, who has battled injury problems in his career but has nevertheless become a feared shot-blocker. A year ago, Davis (5.6 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 3.2 bpg) missed four games and was limited in several others, but he still managed to lead the SEC and was 11th in the nation in blocked shots (77). Davis already has the school’s single-season (84) and single-game (13 vs. Miami) records for blocked shots and is No. 2 all time, with 162, behind Mamadou N’diaye’s 241. If Davis stays healthy, N’diaye’s record should fall this season. A year ago, Davis terrorized several teams, blocking nine shots against Louisiana Tech, eight against Vanderbilt and LSU and six against High Point. "If we can get Davis injury-free inside, we know what his value has been," Ellis said. "He has been a stalwart defensively. Because of injuries, his offensive game hasn't developed as we would have liked. Our goal was to polish that in the offseason." Two sophomores will play a lot up front. Brandon Robinson (8.5 ppg, 5.2 rpg), 6-foot-8, was the surprise of the team last season and was chosen to the SEC’s All-Freshman team. Robinson scored a season-high 21 points in 21 minutes against UNC Asheville, piled up 16 points and 14 rebounds at Arkansas and 15 points and seven rebounds against Virginia. Marco Killingsworth (7.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg), a burly 6-foot-7 and 235 pounds, started 14 times and averaged 20 minutes a game. He led the Tigers in field-goal percentage (.529) and was fifth on the team in scoring and fourth in rebounding. "Marco Killingsworth is a guy who is going to be there somehow, someway," Ellis said. "He is an extremely good power player." Auburn recruited some more bulk in the form of Terry Licorish, a 6-foot-9, 235-pound freshman who played with Leven at Laurinburg Institute, and Rodney Tucker, a 6-foot-8, 250-pound junior who played last season at Tallahassee (Fla.) Community College. Licorish, ranked among the nation’s top 10 fifth-year and prep school players by several recruiting analysts, averaged 16 points, nine rebounds and four blocks a year ago. The Toronto native was chosen the top big man in Canada for the past three years by Double Exposure. Tucker, who played at Florida State as a freshman in 1999-2000, averaged 14.4 points and 6.8 rebounds and shot 61 percent from the field last season. Auburn may have gotten a steal by riding out Tucker’s legal problems. He was recruited by Cincinnati, Connecticut and Oklahoma, but those three schools dropped off his trail after he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor simple battery of a former Florida State female student. Tucker was placed on six months probation. Two years ago, Tucker averaged 2.1 points, 1.9 rebounds and 10.7 minutes per game for the Seminoles. His career high of nine points came in a game at Duke. "I like the fact that Rodney Tucker played ACC basketball for a year," Ellis said. "And he has had another year of college experience, although at junior college. Having played in the ACC, he at least understands the SEC." Auburn’s momentum under the veteran Ellis was derailed last season, but he hopes 2001-02 was an aberration and not indicative of a move in the opposite direction. "Our goals are always postseason basketball," Ellis said. "That is first and foremost. I feel like we are in a great conference that is extremely competitive. A couple of years ago, we were on top. I have always felt that in a program such as Auburn, where championships hadn't been won in 40 years, you constantly work with young players in developing them into championship players. "We are going through a recycling process in which this past year we played a lot of young players. We were forced into this with the NBA draft and with injuries." It might take Auburn a while to get back to the level it was in 1998-99, when the Tigers won the SEC West. Since that time, Alabama and Mississippi State have become NCAA Tournament teams. LSU has survived serious NCAA sanctions and returned to postseason play in 2002. Ole Miss is now a perennial postseason team. The division is a lot tougher now. Still, Ellis remains hopeful. "Everybody is talented at this level, but I look at that group and compare it to the group that brought Auburn a championship," he said. "I think that this young group is more talented from a skill standpoint than that group. Now, the championship team had as much heart as any team that I have been associated with. That is going to be the key component." If the Tigers come up with the heart Ellis mentioned, they could well find four or five more victories than the 12 they accounted for a year ago. That would be enough for an NIT bid. After last season, the NIT would represent great progress.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
