Auburn opens against Missouri State

By Andrew Gribble
Auburn University Beat Reporter
Published: November 13, 2008

AUBURN — Lately, Quantez Robertson has been having fun — at practice.

Not a game. Practice.

“It’s been fun getting used to playing with each other,” Robertson said, “going up and down with the new players.”

Robertson was quick to admit, though, that it’s a lot more enjoyable getting to know his seven new teammates during an actual game. The games start to count tonight when Auburn hosts Missouri State at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum in both teams’ season opener.

Early chemistry was apparent in Auburn’s 98-50 victory over Morehouse, a Division II school, in last week’s exhibition tune-up. The Tigers’ offense definitely clicked, and shots fell from every angle against its overmatched competition.

But it’s by no means all there yet, Robertson said.

“It takes a while because when you get new players, they get accustomed to you and you have to get used to them,” he said.

It didn’t take Robertson long to get used to what junior-college transfer Tay Waller can do.

The sharp-shooting guard drained seven 3-pointers and hit for a game-high 27 points against the Maroon Tigers. Once Waller made his first deep ball,
Robertson and his teammates kept firing passes to the junior and set him up for a number of open looks.

“He’s been doing that pretty constantly during practice or when we’re just out here getting ready for practice,” Robertson said. “Even when he first got to school, he was shooting the ball pretty good.

“When he got it going (Friday), he lit it up.”

The scoreboard lit up too, as the Tigers edged close to putting up their first triple-digit performance under coach Jeff Lebo.

Robertson also did his fair share of illumination. He added 19 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out five assists in Friday’s dress rehearsal.

Waller’s big game made it easier on Robertson, not the sharpest shooter on Auburn’s team, to slash to the hoop and create easy chances for himself.

“With them shooting the ball pretty good, keying on them to not let them get a wide open 3, that opens up driving lanes for me and DeWayne (Reed),” Robertson said. “That will be a big help this season.”

Video hasn’t been much help to Auburn as it prepared for its first-ever matchup with Missouri State. And with a new coach in Cuonzo Martin, Missouri State, a member of the Missouri Valley Conference, might look completely different from just this spring.

“Coaches try to keep things close to the vest a little bit and not try to show a lot,” Lebo said. “It’s difficult in these first couple of games.”

UK opens season with loaded roster depth: At Lexington, Ky.,  Billy Gillispie’s sequel season at Kentucky opens today with a cast of thousands — or, at least it may seem that way by glancing at the Wildcats’ bench.

A whopping 20 players are listed on Kentucky’s roster for the opener against Virginia Military Institute, although the second-year coach points out probably only about 17 — still a lot — will be active for the game.

“I always want one more,” Gillispie said. “If you’ve got 10, you want 11. If you’ve got six, you want seven.”

Kentucky may need the bodies, or at least several of them, to keep up with a Keydets team that wants to take 100 shots and half of those from three-point range. They’ve led the country in scoring two years running, the first team to accomplish that back-to-back since Arizona did it in 2003 and 2004.
Still, in sheer size and talent, this is a mismatch, right?

Kentucky has 1,966 wins, more than any college team in history. Patrick Patterson and Jodie Meeks provide a lethal inside-outside combo, and there should be more than enough depth to buffer the loss of the team’s two departed senior guards, Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford.

VMI, on the other hand, is a program with extremely limited success. It returns four starters from last year’s 14-win team, but the one who got away, Reggie Williams, scored more points than any Division I player ever from a program in Virginia.

Yet, if the smaller opposition and a looming date with No. 1 North Carolina is a recipe for complacency among the Wildcats’ players, a glance back at last year’s shocking early season loss to Gardner-Webb should cure them of that.

The Wildcats were expected to coast to New York for the semifinals of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic, but instead Gardner-Webb took their plane tickets with an 84-68 shocker in game 2 of the Gillispie era.

Kentucky redeemed itself by putting together a 12-4 Southeastern Conference record — good enough to return to the NCAA tournament for a 17th straight season, so that pitfall is now a distant memory. Gillispie didn’t seem concerned that Gardner-Webb could dominate his players’ thoughts heading into this year’s opener.

“I think they’re a little bit tougher than that,” he said.

Tougher and stronger. The coach has stressed his fondness for “gym rats,” and so far, his players seem to be meeting his lofty expectations. He says this is the best conditioned team he has ever had entering a season.

“Coach is never satisfied and that’s what we like about him,” Meeks said. “If you get 45 points, he’s still going to tell you what you need to correct, and that’s how you get better.”

One newcomer, 6-10 Josh Harrelson, figures to help support Patterson in the post this year. He says he’s in great shape, having lost 17 pounds, and it showed in Kentucky’s two exhibition tuneups, in which he averaged 11.5 points.

“The weight loss has helped me jump higher, run faster and given me a quicker step,” Harrelson said. “That all helps me guard on the perimeter better. I think I can be really good and become an impact player here. To do that, I need to push myself to the limit every day.”

Such is Gillispie’s mantra for the entire team. His focus in the opener is cutting down on turnovers and second-chance shots. That could be particularly important against VMI, which wants to run.

“You play really hard on defense for 22 seconds and then they get an offensive rebound, it destroys you,” Gillispie said. “There’s been no team put together that can play really hard on defense time after time, then give up offensive rebounds and still be tough enough to continue to do that.”