Posts Tagged ‘Basketball’

Welcome to new Auburn Basketball Coach Tony Barbee

Tony Barbee, a 38-year-old up-and-comer who rejuvenated UTEP basketball over the past four seasons, will be named Auburn’s new head basketball coach, the Opelika-Auburn News has confirmed through sources close to the program.

Auburn is expected to announce the news later tonight and a press conference will be held tomorrow afternoon.

Barbee will become Auburn’s first black basketball coach in program history and will join track coach Ralph Spry Jr. as the only two minority head coaches at the university.

And the names just keep on coming.

Jay Jacobs appears to be making the rounds in Texas, as Sam Houston State’s Bob Marlin is the newest name to emerge on Auburn’s search for a basketball coach.

A Fox TV station in Huntsville is reporting the story, quoting Sam Houston State athletic director Bobby Williams. I’ve got a call into Williams, whom I expect to call me back and tell me the same thing.

North Texas coach Johnny Jones will interview to be Auburn’s new basketball coach some time this week, the Denton Record-Chronicle is reporting tonight.

Jones’ candidacy is the latest example of the revved-up pace to Auburn’s coaching search this week, as a number of top candidates are now officially done for the season after exiting from their respective tournaments.

Jones, 50, took North Texas to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in the past four seasons this year after beating Troy in the Sun Belt Tournament. The 15th-seeded Mean Green lost their first-round game to Kansas State last Thursday, 82-62.

From Wally Tinker

Wally Tinker, game ball in hand, strolled past the free-throw line and stopped about 7 feet from the hoop outside the paint.

With 9,927 fans cheering as loudly as they had all night in Auburn’s 89-80 upset victory Wednesday over Mississippi State, the former Tiger wasted little time before sending a high-arching shot toward the hoop, stationed right around the same place he hit the first basket in Beard-
Eaves-Memorial Coliseum more than 41 years ago.

(Photo credit: Todd Van Emst)

After watching Auburn drop yet another SEC game last night, I got to thinking.

There have to be a few statistics that can help me quantify why Auburn is 13-15 overall and, more importantly, 4-9 in the SEC.

Here are a few, all of which played a factor in last night’s 85-75 loss at Ole Miss.

***Auburn is 10-1 when DeWayne Reed takes 11 or fewer shots. Conversely, the Tigers are 3-14 when he takes 12 or more.

***The Tigers are 2-6 when Brendon Knox fouls out.

by: Chizad

A month ago, Jeff Lebo’s position as head Auburn basketball coach appeared to be in jeopardy.  Many Auburn fans had set the ultimatum that if he didn’t make it to the NCAA tournament this year, he needed to pack it up.

Little did we know,  the selection committee would take this whole “The SEC is weak this year” concept and run with it to the extreme. So much so that apparently this year a team ranked second in their division of a major NCAA conference with 20 wins  (and counting) is not only not being talked about as one of the 65 teams making it into the tournament, it’s considered ridiculous to discuss them as one of approximately 30 bubble teams.