Friday, March 13, 2009

The Works, Friday Friday Friday-style

For yours truly, Selection Sunday weekend doesn't officially tip off until the Patriot League championship--awesomely scheduled for Friday happy hour late afternoon year after year--gets underway. We're just a few minutes away, but I'll toss some links your way first.

Hoops stuff. Hey, remember the Auburn women? They're hosting a get-together at the Buffalo Connection to watch the Selection Show early Monday evening. That should kind of kick ass, partly because the only drama is whether they're a 1 or 2 and whether they miss UConn, so it should be mostly celebratory. Also, partly because I always liked the wings there and am stuck with "BW3's" or nothing up here.

Take a moment to sympathize with Quantez Robertson, please, who as a senior has seen his minutes and role cut dramatically. One of the few positives about that sort of thing is that you're due the requisite "he's a senior who's just happy to do whatever he can for the team!" fluff piece (not that Robertson doesn't deserve it), which came out today ... with the name "Robinson" in the headline. I'm sure it's not the first time Quantez's surname has been altered in this fashion, but still.

Also worth reading is this breakdown of what Auburn's been doing with themselves in Tampa while they wait to become the last team to play their first game in the SEC tourney. (I recommend blog reading.) It has to be a weird situation--by the time Auburn tips off, it'll be after 10 p.m. local time. How a team would respond to that, I doubt anyone would really know. It makes me nervous, frankly.

Lunardi. Andy Bitter updating us on the thoughts of the web's preeminent bracketologist reminded me of something I've meant to mention for a couple of days: if there's any team Lunardi has am unhappy history with, it's Auburn. In 1999, Lunardi had Auburn as a No. 2 seed, claiming Stanford had the better body of work. Miss! In 2003, he had Texas Tech as the last team in the field, Auburn as one of the first four out. Surprise! So where Auburn's concerned, his word's not quite gospel.

Hey, other sports. Not much is going on in Auburn football right at the moment, but Lifetime of Defeats had a nice look at where he thinks Auburn's Pro Day prospects might get drafted (or not). That James Swinton might get even a courtesy phone call from an NFL team is kind of baffling. Also out there in the football blAUgosphere at the moment is Acid's newest edition in the "Tubby's Greatest Games" series and the Auburner wrote this:
He's the Benjamin Franklin of Auburn football. You know that everything he says is true because his name is Eltoro Freeman or “the bull-free man”.
Genius.

Over on the diamond, Auburn's riding a nine-game winning streak against sub-par competition ('Bama excepted ... WAIT! 'Bama not excepted, ha ha ha!). The Tigers move up a level today when they start a three-game series up in Knoxville against the Vols. PPL has both your preview and an early ratings-based guess at how many wins Auburn's going to finish with this year.

I'll be back tomorrow a.m. Enjoy the game, everyone.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

.....Regarding the "Robinson" headline, I figure Scarbinski is trying to give equal time. He did rile the bama folk up with the "Saban delayed the textbook case to help recruiting" story..

.....The Robinson instead of Robertson thing leapt off the paper at me, this morning, but the News HAS become pretty sloppily edited, lately.

Anonymous said...

OH YEAH!

My friend and I were discussing our bubble hopes earlier. Here's how we broke it down:

It's almost impossible to imagine the SEC only getting two bids. We know that Tennessee and LSU are in for sure. Auburn has to be the third team in right now, as long as Miss St. doesn't win the tournament. We just beat Florida to jump them, Kentucky is way out, and South Carolina blew a big opportunity. If Miss St. doesn't win the tournament, it would take something incredible happening for us not to make it, IMO.

Unknown said...

I think AU has to beat UT tomorrow or their chances to get in are less than 50/50. If they win, I think its better than 50/50 they get in as an at large. The other bubble teams like Arizona, Penn State, and Maryland have better overall resumes, but AU has played better down the stretch. A win over the 2nd best overall team in the SEC would further convince the committee that AU is worthy.