Auburn opens basketball practice

Auburn basketball opened its first practice of the 2008-09 season by working out for two hours Saturday in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum that saw the healthy return of Korvotney Barber along with four other veterans and five newcomers.

"We will move a little slower this year obviously with new guys and a lot of new faces," said head coach Jeff Lebo. "We started on our simplistic offensive sets. Defensively, we will concentrate on mechanics and start on the infancy part of our man-to-man defense."

Lebo welcomed the senior trio of Quantez Robertson, Barber and Rasheem Barrett and juniors Lucas Hargrove and DeWayne Reed.

"I love the way how the team has meshed and how hard they have played," Lebo said. "They want to win. We have to run a six minute mile to make the team and this is the first time everybody made it. They are doing a lot of stuff together. I like where we are.

"We will see what happens with our cohesiveness once the games start. That is the true test for your team when playing time is determined and all kind of different things happen. It is all because of that. If we can stay together through that and if we can get some consistent play out of those big guys ... I like where we are right now with our depth. I think we will be able to play a lot of different people this year."

The Tigers concentrated on simple offensive sets in the beginning and worked on defensive fundamentals and put in the initial stages of man-to-man defense. Newcomers Tay Waller, Frankie Sullivan, Francis Aihe, Brendon Knox and Johnnie Lett went through their first practice as Tigers.

Auburn plays its only exhibition game against Morehouse Nov. 7 before playing its season opener at home against Missouri State Nov. 14.

Season tickets are currently on sale for the 19-game home portion of the schedule for $199. Single-game adult tickets are $10 for non-conference games and $15 for SEC games except for the Alabama game, which are $20.

Two mini-SEC ticket packages for $50 each are available with the Orange pack consisting of the Alabama, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State and Arkansas games and the Blue pack consisting of the Florida, Tennessee, Ole Miss and LSU games. Non-conference single-game tickets will go on sale Dec. 1 while the exhibition game is free.

Holiday Game student section seats for NON-STUDENTS are $5 each for the Tulane, Alabama State, Alabama A&M and Southeastern Louisiana games. The Family Fun Zone for upper sections 17-26 are $10 each and are available for all SEC home games except for the Alabama game. Fun Zone tickets consisting of 311 seats are sold on game day only at the box office. Group tickets of 20 or more tickets are available for $5 each for all games except for Alabama with a required advance purchase.

For more information, please call the Tigers Unlimited or Athletic Department ticket office at 1-800-AUB-1957 or visit www.auburntigers.com.