OUR VIEW: Give Lebo the Heave-ho
by Editorial Board
24 months ago | 2510 views | 5 5 comments | 26 26 recommendations | email to a friend | print
Although there are nine games left in the basketball season, we feel the need to speak out on this matter now.

When we reach the end of this season, we call on Coach Jeff Lebo to step down from his position.

His short tenure here has not been a great time to be an Auburn Tiger within the walls of Beard-Eaves.

He has led his teams to only two overall winning seasons and only one postseason appearance.

While Coach Lebo has an admirable, long list of accomplishments and accolades in the media guide provided to us, we can’t help but notice they are all from before his time on The Plains.

His two SEC championship appearances would certainly be more impressive if they had been with us.

As it stands now, we are a team with severe problems.

We’re ranked last in the SEC in free throw percentage, a problem that has plagued us for several seasons. Free throws are a part of fundamentals; shouldn’t an effective coach notice that?

We’re also ranked last in the SEC in field goal and three-point defense, signs pointing to the pandemic defense issues we suffer from.

Anyone listening at home can tell we over-rely on three-point shots, as the announcers have stopped finding ways to make Auburn sound new and exciting.

Our record stands currently at 11-11, 2-5 in the SEC.

Even with nine games left, we don’t see the situation improving, if at all.

Sure, we beat Alabama, but Alabama wasn’t that great of a team this year, and we have beaten them six of the last seven times we’ve played them.

The “If we beat ‘Bama, we’re fine” mentality that dominates Auburn sports’ life is dangerous, signaling to lackluster coaches that one simple win could save them from the chopping block.

It’s time to change that point of view.

Coach Lebo’s recruitment issues also deserve some observation.

We spend twice as much on recruiting expenses for basketball recruits than we do for football recruits, only to see most of our hard-earned money leave Auburn before the end of their 4-year stay. The man can’t keep recruits here, so we develop depth issues.

No doubt the new Arena will help bolster recruitment for us. A state-of-the-art facility does wonders for a program.

We’re getting excited about the potential it represents, but we feel we won’t be able to fully do our best with Lebo still at the helm.

Change came to the football team in the form of Coach Chizik, and we started

to get back on the right track.

With the big change of the new facilities should come the equally big change of a new coach.

We were once a school with a great football team and a great basketbal team.

We feel with Lebo’s departure, we can begin to go back to those glory days.
Comments
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Nice Try
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February 17, 2010
Not even five percent of the student body knows how to dribble a basketball, let alone know the rules, or go to a game.

Typical Auburn community, do something just because it's cool or because other people are saying/doing/wearing it.
Leon Duke
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February 17, 2010
I've only watched 2 games (KY and bammer) and I was not that discouraged with either. Our facilities are pretty rank...Why not let Lebo try one year recruiting and coaching in the new house?
J D Eubanks
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February 07, 2010
It is painful to watch AU men's basketball. A telling sign of what the future may bring is a SMALLER ARENA opening next year.What does that say to future recruiting? If the Athletic Director can sack the AU Baseball coach after a poor 5 year run on the AU diamond then IT IS TIME TO ADDRESS THE STATE OF AU MEN'S BASKETBALL. And there was talk of opening the new arena with AU playing NORTH CAROLINA because of the Lebo connection. A GUARANTEED LOSS. Find a dynamic new coach and get on with taking on the powers of SEC men's basketball. THE TIME IS NOW.
dgsdhajfj
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February 05, 2010
this attempt at being controversial is just laughable.

Are you all serious with this?

OOO, OUCH! hit us where it hurts, our basketball coach! Damn!

What's next, our track coach?

typical plainsman
student1000
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February 04, 2010
When, for a sustained period of time, did we have both a great football team and basketball team. I don't remember Auburn being great at both for longer than 2 years or so. I guess it also depends on how you define great, but our basketball team has always struggled in comparison to the football team, unless the football team was really bad. In that case, neither teams were great.