AUBURN | What a week it’s been for Auburn basketball.
The Tigers rose to No. 1 in the AP Poll Monday for only the second time in program history. It came two days after All-American Johni Broome went down with a pretty serious ankle injury.
They defended their lofty ranking and showed they’re so much more than a one-man show with a home win over No. 15 Mississippi State and a tight road win at No. 23 Georgia.
Auburn’s defense was the difference in both games.
AU held MSU to 18 points below their season average in an 88-66 win. UGA was undefeated and averaging 85.7 points per game at home until the Tigers’ 70-68 victory.
When Auburn plays defense like that, it can beat any team in the country anytime and anywhere, which is pretty much what it’s done all season.
They were both the definition of team wins with different players stepping up in each game and the group as a whole showing a heap of mental and physical toughness.
Having success without your best player shows this team can handle adversity. And there’s sure to be more obstacles to overcome over the next couple of months.
It’s also important that AU has shown it can win close games on the road. A week before AU’s win at Georgia, it beat South Carolina 66-63 in Columbia.
Neither finish was smooth and there were plenty of mistakes on the Tigers’ part. But they won both, and they can learn and build from the experience.
That’s what great teams do.
Auburn is alone atop the league standings with a 5-0 record. AU already leads the country with 10 Quad 1 wins and 11 of its remaining 13 games are currently Quad 1.
No team in the country is better prepared for the gauntlet Auburn is about to face because it’s already made it through a gauntlet over the first 18 games of the season with just one lone loss.
Bruce Pearl has promised more losses as AU navigates its way through the toughest schedule in school history, and I’m not arguing with the head coach.
But Pearl has put them in position to handle whatever setbacks they face. A year ago, Pearl had a good team that would sometimes breakdown and play as individuals in tough situations.
This year, he’s got a team that plays like a team almost 100 percent of the time. And that’s the biggest reason the Tigers are poised to run through this gauntlet and provide many more big weeks ahead.
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In today’s musical journey, we go back 136 years to the birth of one of the most talented and influential folk and blues musicians of all time. On Jan. 20, 1889, Huddle William Ledbetter, known as Lead Belly, was born on a plantation near Mooringsport, La., to a tenant farmer father and half-Indian mother. They moved to Bowie County, Texas five year later where Lead Belly grew up playing guitar. He left home in 1901 to work as a minstrel. He also worked as a farmhand and played his guitar in saloons. Lead Belly was convicted of murder in 1918 and sentenced to 30 years, but was pardoned in 1925 after writing a song in honor of Texas Governor Pat Neff. He had another stint in Louisiana’s Angola prison for attempted murder where he was discovered by Texas folklorist John Avery Lomax and his son, Alan Lomax. They took Lead Belly to New York, where he spent some time in Riker’s, and eventually out on tour where he gained national recognition. The origin of his nickname is disputed. It was either for taking a gunshot in the gut or from fellow inmates in Texas for his work ethic on the chain gang.
Lead Belly was known for playing a 12-string guitar and introducing a number of folk music standards including “In the Pines,” “Midnight Special,” “Goodnight, Irene” and “Boll Weevil.” He could also play a number of other instruments including the piano, violin, accordion and harmonica. He struggled to earn a lot of money from his talent but did produce seven albums and release 38 singles. He’s had a huge influence on music including Kurt Cobain, who performed “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” a version of “In the Pines,” during Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged concert. The Weavers’ version of “Goodnight, Irene” became the first folk song to reach No. 1 in the U.S. in 1951. He’s influenced many other artists including Bob Dylan, the Beatles and Van Morrison. Lead Belly died of Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) in 1949. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
