Aubserver Mailbag 69: 'Bout That Time

This week: Walker Kessler, quarterfinal matchups, 1 vs. 2 seeds, bracket talk, small-ball lineups, Space Jam, the nWo and #TeamPablo

C Walker Kessler (Jacob Taylor/Auburn Athletics)

Hello. Before we begin this special Tournament Edition of the Mailbag, I have two announcements and a quick story.

The first announcement is that, just in time for the SEC Tournament, people can now try The Observer for free for seven days. You can get access to all of the newsletters and all of the premium podcast episodes — and there might be a few of them over the weekend — for a full week. So, if you would like to check us out during tournament time, or if you know someone who might want to give us a spin, click the button below or send them to auburnobserver.com/trial.

The second announcement is that The Auburn Observer now has an app! Well, kinda. Substack just launched its new mobile app on Apple devices this week. (The Android app is coming soon.) So, if you would like to read or listen to the Observer in its own separate app away from your email inbox — plus all the other great Substacks you might subscribe to — download it at the button below.

And now, our story.

One of my main goals when starting The Auburn Observer was to cover basketball with as much insight and effort as football. At my last two employers, that wasn’t always encouraged.

This week is a perfect example. Today, I will make the trip down to Tampa to cover the SEC Tournament. This will be the first SEC Tournament I’ve covered in person since my junior year of college — 2014, which was the last game of the Tony Barbee Era. I didn’t cover a single one of the next five SEC Tournaments, and Auburn hasn’t played in one since 2019 due to COVID and last season’s self-imposed ban.

I’m so thankful for the time I spent at my previous stops, as we couldn’t have built The Observer into a sustainable option without those experiences. It’s where I learned how to write about Auburn for a living and gained an audience.

But I am even more thankful for those of you who have subscribed to us and consumed our basketball newsletters and podcasts as much as the football ones. You guys made all of this possible. You guys are the reason why I can cover these games on the road without worrying about the financial costs. I’ll never be able to thank you enough for that.

With that being said, let’s talk all things Tigers basketball before they tip-off in Tampa tomorrow. This was a fun mailbag to do, especially on short notice. The Inner Circle stays ready.

Let’s go.