Auburn coach Tony Barbee is trying his best to toughen up his young team.
That just hasn't made the tough defeats, road game after road game, any easier to stomach.
Though he upped the intensity at practice throughout the week, Barbee saw his team fall in the exact same way it's fallen in all of its SEC road games this season. The Tigers lost another close game away from Auburn on Saturday, falling to Ole Miss, 61-54. Players left the game dejected and angry, a year's worth of frustration coming to a head.
"There's a certain level of toughness that you've got to have that we don't have across the board," Barbee told the Mobile Press-Register. "It's just missing from this team. So that just is what it is."
Barbee has tried his best to instill that toughness. Instead of going easy on the Tigers after their lopsided loss to Alabama on Tuesday, he increased the intensity of the team's midweek practices. Trying to keep their legs fresh wasn't a priority.
"There's some things in practice that we backed off, toughness-wise, because I thought the guys had got it. It's clear we haven't got it yet," Barbee told the Press-Register. "This time of year it's about fresh legs and fresh minds, and so you start to back off on some things, because you can't be in here for three hours. But some of that toughness stuff that I felt we had, not only did it cost us the game the other night, but it cost us the game at State and maybe a couple of the other ones lately that we let slip away."
It didn't translate into a victory Saturday, but there's plenty of time for even more fine-tuning. The Tigers have the week off before they host Mississippi State.
"It's just getting back to (being) physical," point guard Josh Wallace told the Press-Register. "These last few games, we've slacked up on the defensive end, and that's our identity. We can't do that. Even when we're getting our offense going, we can't slack up on the defense."
NOTES, QUOTES
--Auburn has made a living playing close games throughout the SEC season. The problem is it's been on the wrong end of most of those games. Four of Auburn's five road losses this season have been by a combined 20 points. The Tigers have won just once on the road this season, at Hawaii in December.
--With his block Saturday against Ole Miss, F Kenny Gabriel swatted at least one shot in five consecutive games and 12 of the last 13, through the weekend. Gabriel was second in the SEC with 61 blocks at that point, trailing Kentucky's Anthony Davis by a mile, but also well ahead of the rest of the competition.
--Thanks to F Kenny Gabriel, the Tigers were fourth in the SEC in blocks as a team, through the weekend, averaging 5.2 per game. By the 18th game of the season, Auburn had already surpassed its total of 100 from last year. Behind Gabriel, C Rob Chubb has 24 and Adrian Forbes has 13.
QUOTE TO NOTE
"Things just didn't go in our favor at the end of the game. It comes down to getting defensive stops and executing at the end. They did a better job of it than we did." -- Auburn coach Tony Barbee.
THIS WEEK'S GAME
--vs. Mississippi State, Feb. 18
In their matchup with the Bulldogs last week, the Tigers made it too easy for big forwards Arnett Moultrie and Renardo Sidney in the paint. The duo combined for 38 points and 10 rebounds in Mississippi State's 91-88 victory. Sidney made all five of his shots while Moultrie hit 7-of-13. If possible, the Tigers need to find a way to put the duo on the foul line more. The players combined to miss seven free throws against Auburn the last time out.
FUTURES MARKET
The rewards of Auburn's 2012 signing class can't some soon enough. The Tigers would seemingly have all the answers to their problems of this season if they were able to have their signees on campus right away. SG Jordan Price is the prize of the bunch. The Lithonia, Ga., native is considered one of the top players at his position in the entire country and could, feasibly, be college-ready right from the start. Forwards such as Shaquille Johnson and Jordan Granger would give the Tigers bodies in the paint while Asauhn Dixon-Tatum, at 6-foot-11, would give Auburn a true center. Of course, a learning curve is anticipated for the bunch, which could be coach Tony Barbee's best yet.
PLAYER NOTES
--G/F Josh Langford didn't make the trip to Ole Miss on Saturday because of lingering effects from a concussion he sustained Jan. 25 at Arkansas. Langford has not played in any of the games since the injury.
--G Frankie Sullivan scored his 1,000th career point and added eight more in Saturday's loss to the Rebels. Sullivan, a junior, is the 33rd player in Auburn history to score more than 1,000 points over his career.
