AUBURN | I don’t know how the 2021-22 men’s basketball season will end, and neither do you.
But I do know it’s been one of the most enjoyable seasons of any sport I’ve covered at Auburn, and that includes some pretty successful football seasons in 2004, 2010 and 2013, and runs to the Women’s College World Series finals in 2016, and College World Series and, of course, the Final Four in 2019.
All very special in their own right.
But this season, this regular season to be more specific, has been nothing short of amazing.
It’s not just the first No. 1 ranking in school history or the drive to a potential SEC Championship or a rowdy Auburn (Neville) Arena or even watching potentially the highest-drafted player in program history having a spectacular freshman season.
It’s what’s happening off the court that’s really captured the imagination. From the postgame Twitter memes to the peacock to the Crane kick — it’s all so authentic and unapologetic.
And speaking of the peacock and being unapologetic, it’s time for the entire Auburn family, including all those grumpy Bunker posters, to be a peacock too.
A peacock doesn’t complain or mope after a one-point road loss. It struts around displaying its extravagant feathers like it’s going to bring an absolute beatdown to its next opponent.
Peacocks don’t fret over what might happen, they delight in the present.
Be a peacock.
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It’s good to see both softball and baseball off to strong starts, with newcomers playing a big role.
The softball team in particular appears to be much more competitive than it has been the first four seasons under Mickey Dean with a 9-1 record including a win over No. 11 Texas.
The biggest improvement has come at the plate where the Tigers are hitting .328 with 16 home runs in 10 games. Last season, they hit .242 with 22 home runs in 51 games.
Freshmen are playing a big part. Bri Ellis is batting .391 with four home runs and 12 RBI, Nelia Peralta .346 with two home runs and nine RBI and Jessie Blaine .364 with one home run and six RBI.
Baseball is just three games in with an opening loss to Oklahoma followed by a tight win over No. 12 Texas Tech and a blowout of Kansas State. Auburn’s pitching staff allowed just five runs over three games, the first time they’ve done that against a Power 5 opponents since the 2019 team did the same to Tennessee.
A year ago, AU gave up 17 runs going 1-2 against Oklahoma, Baylor and Texas A&M at the Round Rock Classic.
The team will go into Wednesday’s game against Troy with a 1.38 ERA. Veterans Trace Bright and Joseph Gonzalez had promising starts while JUCO transfer Jordan Armstrong, and freshmen John Armstrong and Chase Allsup impressed out of the bullpen.
Samford transfer Sonny DiChiara had a big weekend batting .556 with three doubles.
Also, a special shoutout to the women's basketball team, which beat its third top 25 opponent, taking down Georgia 65-60 Sunday. First-year coach Johnnie Harris already has that program turned back in the right direction.
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In today’s musical journey, we go back 23 years to the release of one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time. On Feb. 12, 1999, Eminem released The Slim Shady LP, which went on to sell over 10 million copies, be certified quadruple-platinum and be ranked by Rolling Stone as the No. 352 album all-time and by About.com as the No. 76 hip-hop album of all time. It included several hit songs such as My Name Is and Guilty Conscience. It won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album in 2000 and My Name Is won a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance. The album is written from the perspective of Eminem’s violent alter ego, Slim Shady, and focuses a lot on growing up in poverty in different places including the West 7 Mile area of Detroit, which was home to the Hip Hop Shop where he honed his skills during open mic sessions.
Marshall Bruce Mathers III was born in 1972 in St. Joseph, Missouri. His parents played in a band called Daddy Warbucks before his father left the family and moved to California. Marshall’s mother was abusive to him growing up despite him working minimum wage jobs to help support their family. Many lyrics from Marshall’s early songs are critical of her and she ended up suing him for slander in 1999, which was settled out of court for a small amount. The pair have since reconciled and have a much better relationship today. At age 14, Marshall began rapping with a friend and they adopted the name Manix and M&M, which evolved into Eminem. After dropping out of high school, he was involved in several different groups before recording his first album, Infinite, in 1996. It wasn’t successful but Eminem got a big break in 1997 when he attracted the attention of an intern for Interscope Records at a rap battle in Los Angeles. The Slim Shady LP came out two years later followed by nine more albums including 2000’s The Marshall Mathers LP and 2002’s The Eminem Show. He has five No. 1 hits including 2002’s Lose Yourself, 2009’s Crack A Bottle, 2010’s Not Afraid and Love The Way You Lie, and 2013’s The Monster. He was the best-selling music artist in the U.S. in the 2000’s and ranks in the top 10 of best-selling artists of all-time with more than 220 million in sales.
It was through Interscope CEO Jimmy Iovine that Eminem’s demo was sent to Dr. Dre, who immediately began working with him on The Slim Shady LP through Interscope and his label, Aftermath Entertainment. The recording sessions mostly consisted of Dr. Dre creating a beat and Eminem freestyle rapping. On the first day of recording at Studio 8 in Ferndale, Michigan, they created My Name Is in one hour. Afterwards, Interscope gave Eminem his own label, Shady Records. In 2002, Eminem starred with Mekhi Phifer and Britany Murphy in the semi-autographical movie, 8 Mile, for which Lose Yourself won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Eminem has an estimated net worth of $230 million.
