Mailbag 200: What have been Auburn's top five shots of the season?
This week: Looking back at preseason projections, the battle for the No. 1 overall seed, technical fouls, the JYD and round numbers
(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
AUBURN — We love round numbers, don’t we?
Welcome to the 200th edition of the mailbag. Considering how long these things usually are, I’m probably getting close to a million words written just in mailbags alone. At three different stops now, the mailbag has been my most popular work.
So, thank you for wanting to read all of these marathons over the years. This is one of the top highlights of my week, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.
OK, I’ll share some of my appreciation at the end of this mailbag.
Before we get there, though, let’s take on some big questions for Auburn basketball as it tries to get even closer to a historic SEC championship campaign. You asked about the best shots of the season so far, looking back at the preseason projections, the No. 1 overall seed lead, technical fouls, the Junkyard Dawg, goaltending and a lot more.
Let’s go.
Top five shots of the season so far. No dunks or alley-oops.
joshdub
All five — well, six — of these shots were critical in Auburn pulling off some of their most important wins of the season. There have been tougher shots this season. There have been wilder shots this season. But these, in my opinion, are the top ones because of what they represented. Without them, Auburn isn’t in its current position.
5. Tahaad Pettiford’s go-ahead 3-pointer against Houston: This didn’t give Auburn the lead for good against Houston — it needed a CBM floater and some stops late to pull off that win — but this was still a massive shot in the moment. Houston retakes the lead, and Auburn draws up a play to get its true freshman a look from downtown. Pettiford drills it. After going scoreless in his debut, the former 5-star goes for 21 points against the nation’s best defense a few nights later. He’s different.
4. Johni Broome’s late putback against Arkansas: Is this too much recency bias? Maybe. But Auburn needed to win Wednesday night against Arkansas to get a two-game lead in the SEC title race, and both head coaches said this was the play of the night. After a good turnaround jumper from Johnson was off the mark, Broome somehow got enough on the ball to get it to fall. Honorable mention goes to Baker-Mazara getting a go-ahead layup immediately after Arkansas took the lead.
3. Tahaad Pettiford and Chad Baker-Mazara’s huge 3-pointers vs. Alabama: Alabama had rallied all the way back to tie the game up against Auburn, and all the momentum was pointing toward the hosts. So, after a defensive stop, Pettiford gets an outlet pass and decides to step into a transition, early-in-the-shot-clock 3 from the wing. He drills it. After Alabama ties it back up, Baker-Mazara fights off his defender and lassos him into a pull-up 3-pointer of his own. Auburn leads the rest of the way and walks out of Coleman Coliseum the winner of a No. 1 vs. No. 2 thriller.
2. Johni Broome’s game-winning tip-in vs. Iowa State: Down by 18 in the first half and 14 at the break, Auburn stormed back against a top-10 Iowa State team and played a back-and-forth thriller to the finish. After getting a stop in a tie game, Jones and Broome run a two-man game. While Jones’ initial attempt doesn’t fall, Broome was there to put it back for the winner. This would be an early sign of what was coming for Broome and the rest of the Tigers this season.
1. Miles Kelly’s game-winning 3-pointer vs. Tennessee: Down by two in a game where nothing has seemed to go right against an elite defense, Auburn tries to tie the game up with a roll for Broome. His shot doesn’t fall, but the SEC’s best rebounder makes an incredible play to save it and kick it out to an open Kelly in the corner. It didn’t matter how badly the Tigers had gone from deep. Shooters shoot. Kelly’s triple gave Auburn a monster win for the SEC title race and the nation’s best résumé.
How did so many national media types miss so badly on Auburn in their preseason rankings? Sure, no one saw them being THIS good, but some of the low-balling seems crazy now, in hindsight.
Jonny