8bucks

Definitely, which is why this Rant page is active. I am fine with a few athletes, and fine with a few basketball players but the "non-athletes" really need to excel at something. Shooting, running the offense, passing, defense, sweet talking the ref, etc... Leal does not offer those consistently whereas the athletes are generally always athletic. However, we are spending a lot of time talking about players 7 - 12 and while they play a role, I tend to think all these players play too much. We usually do well when starters are in but when these bench players all come in together they are not a productive unit.

Well isnt that exactly how CJ and Banks get minutes? CJ's shot is terribly inconsistent, but he has surprisingly been better at applying ball pressure and using his athleticism and length to be a better defender than Leal. Banks, is a little better shooter but what does he do to help. He has a knack for getting offensive rebounds and putbacks. He can also use his speed and drive to the bucket. Geronimo was much the same his first year here. Geronimo and Banks were better 3 point shooters than Leal and still added some other things based mostly on athleticism. Leal is a great kid. Very enthusiastic and encouraging on the bench and does not pout about the lack of playing time. When he is in, he has some moments where he adds value prrimarily because he is a veteran player. But it is not enough to sit X, Cupps, Gallo. Perhaps he could displace Gunn if Gunn decides not to play D or Banks occasionally.

How so? If you are not a great skills player you can sometimes overcome that by being a great athlete.

Leal's superpower coming in was being a shooter. That never materialized. He does not have the physical traits to add much and is veteranship is limited by his lack of experience playing in games. He needed to develop that superpower but whether that was lack of individual practice or lack of being a gamer I am not sure but that was how he would earn minutes. Otherwise, he is Pat Knight. Been around long enough that he can do some things and can help fill in when players are injured, foul issues or just playing bad. But like Pat, and like the backup QB comparison, he just does not have enough weapons to be a consistent player.

Before we added anyone we did. We then chose to go with 2 bigs and one 3/4. Is Payton going to help us more than a guard? Since we did not get one it does not really matter whether a second guard would have been more help than Sparks will be but we did have space at during that recruiting period.

There can be some kids change their minds in the spring and the portal might help but Woody did swing a miss with guards in the portal last year. We really could have used 1 for sure and maybe 2. If we find a way to go on a run like last year then that will really help especially as it would require winning games against some of the better teams in the BT. But if we really struggle down the stretch his portal magic will likely fade

Sure that might be an issue. Auburn had not been good since the 99 season really before he got there. He was coming off a very good run at TN and that would probably earn him more street cred than Woody has. Also hard to tell how things were going during those 3 years. It seemed in year 3 the team turned a corner and perhaps they had a bevy of recruits coming in. Maybe he would start off here with more talent and could get going quicker. Certainly something to consider though. We are an impatient lot to some extent. We are also willing to extend more grace when you can see that "help is coming" and/or the teams younger players are making big jumps. Had Woody secured the 3 2024 recruits he was chasing that would have helped. One more is out there but I think the most important one got away (Fland) given the roster makeup but would be willing to agree that we needed a shooter in a big way too.

He missed his first 3 years at Auburn but has made it basically every year since. The covid year they were ranked as a top 20 team so they would have been in.

I think he then did not tell the truth about it which was the bigger "crime" but I am sure he was thinking BBQ was smoked meat and sauce vs hot dogs and hamburgers so when he said, no i did not have him over for BBQ was he really lying ?

There was a Rant train starting up last year too then we started to play well and win. Anyone remember when we got going last year?

Sampson was kind of unwilling to change too if you know what i mean.

I would add Scott Drew

Dolson said he was surprised at how much the Woody hiring healed the former player/fan base which makes me think a change would only happen this year if Woody and he found a way to end this without a firing. Would be hard to do for Woody, to essentially give up after trying for many years to get the job, but they could focus on what the hiring did to restore things. Sure a bit of fluff is needed here but if the story was that Woody helped right the ship by: Bridging the RMK past to the future - probably the biggest thing Getting us back to being a regular NCAA tournament team Consistently beating Purdue (though this year will really be tough) Give him permanent courtside seats or something, maybe an ambassador role and try to let him feel like he accomplished a lot in his 3 years.

As I started to type that i wonderd if that might have been why we have not offered here. Then before i finished I started remembering he was offering before visits.

Doesn’t Woody have a thing about not offering a kid unless they make a visit? Probably not but thought there was something like that back when Fife supposedly offered some kid Woody was not ready to

If 2 of Ware, MM or Malik are back I thing a PG is a much bigger need. Sure it would be good to at a top 10 guy but I sure hope we add a strong PG and another shooter as well.

Seems this going to be another double digit loss.

I don't disagree but when you see the WR room, I just want to make sure we have the QB depth needed to make sure we can maximize the WR talent. Hoping we have few injuries and Tayven can make a big leap. Could even see Cherry fill in if needed later in the season if he comes along quickly.

QB is also one of those spots where veteran guys do not go if they are not typically going to start so getting another experienced guy is probably not likely anyway. Hoping this staff is much better at developing QBs.

Yes Rourke, the conference POY, is the proven one, Tayven has not really proven much yet. If Rourke gets injured then we would be relying on unproven guys.

We don’t have a lot of proven depth at QB. Other than that, things are looking very good

Sampson was not supported by the fans. He came in being on probation and had a poor history of player grades.

You can google it too!

Could be a lot of reasons. Maybe he was given a deadline. Maybe he was not in communication with the new staff. Intriguing for sure but too many unknowns for me.