In what looked like a primetime, golden opportunity to showcase the program on a rare national television appearance, the Auburn men’s basketball team failed to even show up. The Tigers were dominated 88-59 in extreme fashion as they traveled to Birmingham to play West Virginia (6-1) in the Pizza Hut SEC/Big East Challenge. From the start it looked like it would be a long and ugly night for the Tigers. Auburn took an early 2-0 lead before the Mountaineers went on a 12-0 run and eventually a 28-6 lead. The Mountaineers put on a clinic for Coach Jeff Lebo and his Tigers. They controlled the tempo, the front court, the boards; the Mountaineers were just plain overwhelming.
WVU shot lights out from the floor, 61 percent, while the Tigers struggled to get anything going on offense. DeWayne Reed was the only consistent scorer for Auburn, managing 19 points. Turnovers and free throws were again the story of the night for Auburn. The Tigers committed 20 turnovers and shot an absolutely atrocious 12.5 percent from the charity stripe. Auburn failed to get leading scorer Korvotney Barber involved on offense and had no answer for forward Joe Alexander and guard Alex Ruoff, who scored a career-high 28 points on 10-of-12 shooting. Ruoff made 6-of-8 3-pointers, the same number of 3-pointers the entire Auburn team made.  Auburn looked tired and out of sync all night. Fresh off of a five-game suspension, Auburn forward Quan Prowell looked dazed and confused, scoring just four points in 23 minutes of play. Auburn has an easy stretch over the next few weeks before number 20 Xavier comes to town on Jan. 6. Coach Lebo better get things turned around quickly before conference play begins or it could be an abrupt ending to what was once a promising season.
On a more positive note, Van Coleman of CSTV.com, has ranked Auburn’s fall recruiting class No. 21 in the country. Coach Jeff Lebo signed four players including: Frankie Sullivan, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound guard from Uniontown, Ala., ranked as No. 24 guard in the country; Tay Waller, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound guard from Manchester, Ga.; Kenny Gabriel, a 6-foot-8, 200-pound small forward from Charlotte, N.C., ranked as No. 19 small forward in the country; and Johnnie Lett, a 6-foot-9, 240-pound power forward from Mobile, Ala. This is a good sign for the future of Auburn basketball.  Lebo must continue to bring in quality players to rebuild this program.
Auburn returns to action on Dec. 15th at Southern (1-5) and then hosts Mercer (3-5) on Dec. 19th.