AUBURN | When Butch Thompson woke up in Athens, Ga., on the morning of April 30, his team was on the brink. Auburn had been shutout by Georgia 4-0 the night before on one swing of the bat, a sixth-inning grand slam.
The Tigers started the day last in the SEC with a 3-16 record and two games behind Texas A&M and Missouri for 12th. Any realistic chance to play in the postseason was slipping away.
But this Auburn team wasn’t about to give up, even after that deflating loss. They somehow managed to comeback and win game two 10-6 in 14 innings despite losing leads in the sixth, 12th and 13th innings. They would hold on for a 9-7 win the next day to secure their first series victory of the season.
The Tigers went on to win three of their final four series including seven of their final 11 games to finish 10-20 overall and secure 12th place in the standings on the second to last day of the regular season.
Auburn finished the season with series wins over Texas A&M and Missouri. Their seasons are over. AU’s season has a chance to continue thanks to a group of very resilient players and coaches that never, ever gave up despite losing 14 conference games by two runs or less.
Thompson summed up the past two months during an impromptu interview late Saturday night.
“I'll never quit,” Thompson said. “You can look at me right now. I'm wiped out. I've worked less and had more success. We've been grinding with our entire heart. And I don't think I'm alone. That's not to pat me on the shoulder for where we're at. But we didn't cheat anybody. There's no regrets. We worked pretty hard here to get this, so that's why I'd probably swing my left arm at somebody telling me I'm backing into something. We've been working pretty hard.
“We got swept the first weekend. This has been a 10-week run. We've been on alert the entire time since SEC play has started. This didn't wake up at the halfway point and say, 'Hey, y'all need to do better or you're not going to make the tournament.' We've been grinding at this for more than a couple of months. This has been a grind. And I'm willing to finish it, so whether it's Tuesday or something amazing happens, we're going to act that way, because we've come so far.”
Auburn plays No. 13 Ole Miss Tuesday, a team that swept the Tigers to open SEC play. A win and it will face No. 3 Vanderbilt Wednesday. The odds certainly aren’t in AU’s favor, but I’m certainly not counting them out.
I know one thing for certain, this team won’t quit.
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While JT Thor could still technically return, it looks like Bruce Pearl has wrapped up his offseason maneuverings and finalized a very talented roster for Auburn’s 2021-22 team.
He’s done a remarkable job of shoring up weak areas from last season and adding some quality pieces that should allow the Tigers to compete at the top of the SEC once again.
Lack of depth at point guard was probably AU’s biggest hurdle in 2020-21 and Pearl addressed that early on with the additions of transfers Zep Jasper and Wendell Green Jr. Both are playmaking point guards.
Two other additions, Desi Sills and K.D. Johnson give AU more emergency depth at the point position if needed, but more importantly bring athleticism, defensive acumen and 3-point shooting to the wing position.
That’s four big additions to the backcourt, two from SEC rivals Arkansas and Georgia, that significantly upgrade AU’s depth, defense and scoring ability. Add in returning wings Allen Flanigan, Devan Cambridge and Chris Moore, and Pearl should be able to return to the uptempo, 3-point-shooting style that helped him win a regular season SEC championship in 2018 and an SEC Tournament championship and Final Four appearance in 2019.
Auburn’s frontcourt should also be as talented as its been in the Pearl era with the addition on five-star high school signee Jabari Smith and North Carolina transfer Walker Kessler. Those two along with junior Jaylin Williams give the Tigers the ability to shoot the 3 from any position on the floor, and three bigs with a lot of athleticism and scoring ability.
Add in a very talented Dylan Cardwell and an energetic shot-blocker in Babatunde Akingbola at the 5, and it’s a frontcourt filled with versatility and depth. And how can we forget that Cardwell is shooting 100 percent from 3-point range in college.
The key for Pearl and his staff this summer and fall will be to build team chemistry and develop rotations. At least 10 of these players are going to expect significant playing time.
It’s workable, but the egos are going to have to be checked at the door.
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In today’s musical journey, we go back 52 years to the release of an album that introduced rock opera to the world for the first time and helped propel an English band into one of the greatest of all time. On May 23, 1969, The Who released Tommy, a double concept album that follows the story of a kid that is struck deaf, dumb and blind after witnessing a murder. As he grows older, Tommy discovers that he can play pinball by feeling the vibrations. He eventually recovers his senses after realizing they were psychosomatic and becomes a leader of a cult, but his followers ultimately leave him and he withdraws again.
The Who was formed in Acton, London with three of the four founding members attending school together. Roger Daltrey formed a band called the Detours in 1959 with John Entwistle and Pete Townshend joining shortly thereafter. After becoming aware of the group, Johnny Devlin and the Detours, Daltrey chose The Who as the band’s new name in 1964. Keith Moon joined as the drummer later that year and The Who had its four core members. Townshend broke his guitar by accident during a performance at the Railway Hotel in 1964 and ended up smashing it on stage, the first of many guitars and musical instruments the band would destroy during concerts. The Who had their first big hit, My Generation, in 1965, followed by I Can See for Miles in 66. After releasing Tommy in 69, they played both Woodstock and the Isle of Wight Festival, two of the most legendary outdoor concerts of all time. They’ve had a number of other hits over the last 50 years including 1971’s Baba O’ Riley, Won’t Get Fooled Again and Behind Blue Eyes. Moon died of a drug overdose in 1978 and Entwistle of a heart attack in 2002, but the band has continued to tour with Daltrey, Townshend and new members.
Townshend began writing Tommy after being introduced to the Meher Baba movement, which taught that the goal of all beings was to gain consciousness of their own divinity. Townshend wanted to progress the group musically and do more than the standard 3-minute pop song. The Who started recording at IBC Studios in September of 1968, took off a little time to tour and finally finished in March of 69. Tommy peaked at No. 2 in the UK and No. 6 in the US. It’s sold over 20 million copies and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. It’s ranked No. 96 on Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums of all time. Pinball Wizard was the biggest hit from the album, reaching No. 4 in the UK and No. 19 on the Billboard 100. Tommy was adapted into a film by Ken Russell in 1975, which included a cover of Pinball Wizard by Elton John. A stage musical version was created in 1992 and there was even a Tommy pinball game released in 94.
