Still on track

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AUBURN | Tuesday was the low point.

Bruce Pearl had you excited. The weekend win at Georgia was a turning point for fans who were ready to transition from intrigued to emotionally invested. And here comes Alabama, down a point guard and woozy after a loss at Vanderbilt, to create the possibility of a winning streak against Southeastern Conference opponents.

It looked like things finally were coming together for the Tigers. Then they weren't. Alabama dismantled Auburn during the second half Tuesday night by shooting 59 percent from the floor, hitting 10 of its 11 free throws, grabbing 19 rebounds to Auburn's 10 and causing all kinds of trouble on the defensive end.

The loss consummated another home-and-away sweep for the Tide, which is certain to sting Auburn people on face value alone. Add in the growing expectations, the belief that Pearl really had turned around his Tigers this quickly, and you have the recipe for a full-blown panic attack for Auburn people who began caring about basketball this season.

Pearl hates that he let you down.

"Alabama fans wanted Alabama to win this game -- and they wouldn't be happy about it if they didn't win this game. Our fans should have the same expectations," he said after the game. "I feel bad for the great support we have and I am as disappointed as anybody."

Now that platitudes are out of the way, let's get to the points:

Alabama is a better team and did what better teams do;

Pearl's reclamation project remains on schedule;

This team still doesn't have the right kind of depth;

Depth problems can't be fixed during the season;

Stop thinking like a football fan.

Are these coaches miserable and discouraged after an 11-point home loss to their arch rival? Yes. They certainly are. They're a group that's used to winning. They're a group that has done some incredible work this season -- the wins at Georgia and LSU were masterful performances prefaced by remarkable strategic achievement -- and they're as hungry as they've ever been right now.

So are these players. They've felt the jubilation that goes along with a big win. It happened less than a week ago. They feel themselves getting better.

They are, in fact, getting better.

How can that be true considering what happened last night? Because Auburn had an off night. Alabama played at a high level last night. And all things being equal, Alabama wins this game most of the time because its roster has a higher concentration of talent.

Cinmeon Bowers tried to break out of an individual slump by trying to do too much for the team Tuesday night. He was out of control and took too many bad shots. The pressure is on him every single night to play at a high level.

He feels that pressure -- and he hasn't been handling it well lately.

KC Ross-Miller, after two good games, fell victim to the same old follies. He too often flew into the lane without any obvious plan. He lost the ball too often in low-pressure situations. He was sloppy and didn't shoot well.

Malcolm Canada was a mess. He didn't shoot well, he didn't administrate well with the ball in his hands and he was careless on the defensive end.

Trayvon Reed was a zero.

Those shortcomings obfuscated terrific performances from Antoine Mason and KT Harrell, who combined to shoot 15-of-23 from the floor and scored 45 points.

Two good performances isn't enough.

It's not enough for Kentucky. It's not enough for North Carolina. It's not enough for Kansas. And it's certainly not enough for Auburn.

Someone else has to be that third attacker. It was Bowers against Texas A&M and LSU, but he was off his game last night. It was Ross-Miller at Georgia, but he was off his game last night. It was Tahj Shamsid-Deen and Malcolm Canada against Missouri.

Canada was off last night and Shamsid-Deen is out for the season. Boom, boom.

The next five games are going to be a bumpy ride. The game at Kentucky has a chance to be ugly -- the Wildcats are very good and very tall, which is worst-case scenario for these Lilliputian Tigers -- and subsequent games against LSU, A&M and Georgia will require several huge performances to even give Auburn a chance.

Why, then, is it reasonable for Auburn people to think things will be better next season considering how many seniors currently play for the Tigers?

Because the 2015-16 team should be structured in a way that makes it better equipped to handle conference challenges.

Here's how:

Point guard Kareem Canty, currently a redshirt after transferring from Marshall, is an above-average distributor and scorer. He will bring a shrewd, intuitive approach to a position that rewards that kind of thing.

Shooting guard T.J. Dunans, currently in junior college, is a taller version of Chris Denson. He will score points.

Shamsid-Deen will be back with healthy shoulders.

Reed will have an offseason, his first since arriving at the end of December, to gain weight and become familiar with exactly how he best can help this team.

TJ Lang has shown some scoring ability and could be the shooter Auburn really needs to stretch defenses. A full offseason will help him realize that potential -- and make him less of a defensive liability.

Danjel Purifoy, a long and skilled small forward currently in high school, should provide scoring and defense.

Horace Spencer, currently in high school, is a power forward who should be able to provide Bowers the low-post assistance he really needs. That's assuming he signs with Auburn in April, which seems likely. Still, nothing is official until pen meets paper.

The Tigers' Class of 2015 probably isn't finished. Another post player, culled from high school or junior college or even internationally, could provide additional assistance down low.

Everyone who has been following Auburn basketball all this time knew this team was short-handed, emphasis on short, and didn't have enough top-tier talent to win strings of games against the SEC this season. They're not winning many games.

This season always was about Pearl refining his system, learning what he did/didn't have and working to fill those holes via recruiting. Gus Malzahn led Auburn to the championship game in 2013 because the staff before him recruited well. He arrived with plenty of talent, then designed ways to maximize that talent to the extreme.

It was a masterful job, but what Malzahn accomplished has nothing to do with Pearl's task. They're different men doing different jobs in different worlds with vastly different collections of talent.

Pearl is exactly where he expected to be. He hoped for better, sure, but he said all along that Auburn had to play almost perfectly to beat the SEC's better teams. The Tigers were far from perfect against Alabama and they lost.

On to the next step.