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.
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