The 12th win of the season is rarely a milestone for a basketball team. But for Auburn, it was a big one.
With 11 games remaining on the schedule, the Tigers have surpassed their win total for the entire 2010-11 season.
Slowly but surely, the Auburn basketball team is figuring things out. Coach Tony Barbee has implored the team to play inspired defense, and for the past stretch of SEC games, they have listened.
Following the team's embarrassing loss at Vanderbilt where the Tigers scored a paltry 35 points, Auburn bounced back with solid performances at the next four conference matchups, going 2-2 in that stretch.
Barbee has begged for someone on the roster to step up and become a "catalyst."
Saturday, junior guard Frankie Sullivan responded to the challenge. Looking healthy for the first time all season, Sullivan scored 14 of Auburn's 24 points in the first half and kept them in the game, positioning Auburn to make a 31-10 second-half run.
This team has talent, and they've recently begun to play to their potential.
Junior guard Josh Wallace started the South Carolina game ahead of sophomore Varez Ward, who was mired in a shooting slump, and did precisely what was necessary for Auburn to win that day.
He constantly pressured the Gamecocks' primary ball-handler, Bruce Ellington, and pushed the tempo of the transition offense to avoid facing USC's extended 3-2 zone defense.
I'm unsure if Ward's ankle injury is still slowing him down, but he'd be an All-SEC guard if he played with half of Wallace's intensity.
Regardless, Wallace's willingness to challenge every opposing point guard is fun to watch, and from the look of Saturday's game, Barbee's frequent rants on his team's nonchalance toward defense appear to have sunk in.
The Tigers forced 23 turnovers. They played with the type of constant intensity necessary to be a good defensive team. They seemed to have lost the demeanor that they could step on the court and win on talent alone.
I think this team is one offensively skilled big man away from leaving the bottom rungs of the SEC.
Junior center Rob Chubb has improved tremendously from last season, but he still has to be considered a work in progress.
Maybe freshman Willy Kouassi could be guy, but currently he's more offensively challenged than Chubb.
Barbee has the team improving, and that's the most important thing in my mind.
While I've yet to decide if I view Barbee as a guy who finishes what he starts at Auburn or leaves for a more attractive job in a few years, he has been exactly what Auburn needed: a fresh face to recruit high-profile athletes and invigorate a student body that had grown indifferent to Auburn basketball.
Judging by the packed student section at recent games, all that's holding up a fully packed arena are the scholarship seats which remain half-empty game after game.
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