Auburn's fall from glory continues

Posted 6:50AM on Wednesday 30th January 2002 ( 23 years ago )

AUBURN, ALABAMA - The magazines, 10 in all, completely cover the coffee table across from Cliff Ellis' desk. Auburn players are featured on every cover, a compilation from the days when the Tigers were among college basketball's great success stories. ``What happened a couple of years ago hadn't happened here in 40 years,'' Ellis said. Those heady days seem like 40 years ago for a young team struggling through injuries, defections and lineup shufflings. The Tigers (9-9, 1-6 Southeastern Conference) have the SEC's worst league record entering Wednesday night's game with Mississippi State (16-4, 3-3). They have lost four straight and are coming off an 82-59 loss to Tennessee, the only SEC team with a losing overall mark. The struggles aren't all that surprising. Senior Mack McGadney has been slow to recover from last year's knee surgery, and Ellis isn't sure if or when he'll be able to play again. Center Kyle Davis, the league's top shotblocker, had elbow surgery and missed only two games but still isn't 100 percent. But the Tigers' biggest loss was point guard Jamison Brewer, who left for the NBA after his sophomore season. ``Do I like being 1-6? No,'' Ellis said. ``No one wants to be that. But when you sit and look at what has happened, I think if you were to put Brewer and a healthy McGadney and a healthy Davis out there, I don't think we'd be 1-6. ``I absolutely thought that when last season ended that we would compete for the SEC West.'' Three years ago, high-flying forward Chris Porter joined a nucleus of four-year starters in Doc Robinson and Mamadou N'diaye. The team rocketed to a 29-4 record and claimed the school's first SEC championship since the 1959-60 season. The Tigers ended the season ranked fourth, and bigger things were expected in 1999-2000. Sports Illustrated picked Auburn to win the national championship and the Tigers were preseason No. 3 in the AP poll. That team went 24-10 but struggled after Porter was declared ineligible by the NCAA for accepting money from a representative of a sports agent. Auburn hasn't cracked the rankings since, but Ellis is confident the program will return to those levels. ``We have good players. They're young, but we have good players. We have a good coaching staff,'' he said. ``We have an administration that is very strong.'' What the Tigers don't have is experience. McGadney is the only holdover from those two teams, and the adjustment has been tough. ``I would never have believed that we would have started 1-6, because I know we have a great coach in coach Ellis,'' he said. ``I'm thinking, 'What's the problem? What's going on?' I'm not accustomed to losing like this. It's hard right now, but if we just keep on working we can overcome this.'' Brewer made his decision to turn pro on May 13, too late for the Tigers to sign a replacement. Marquis Daniels, a natural small forward and the team's best player, was forced to switch to point guard. Ellis is trying to end that experiment, inserting freshman Lewis Monroe, who had been headed for a medical redshirt. Ellis said Monroe, Marco Killingsworth and Brandon Robinson all could start against the Bulldogs. They'll definitely play prominent roles. ``I think we've been forced into it,'' Ellis said. ``Now, they're thrown into the role where they've got to play a bunch of minutes. It gives them a chance to grow up early and at some point down the line that's going to help. ``One day the light's going to shine on them.'' He's hoping this group can follow in the footsteps of Robinson, N'diaye and Co. ``Doc and those guys played together four years and no one left the program,'' Ellis said. ``They stayed. They struggled, but they stayed committed. ``They brought something to this program that we've never been, and I think this group will do the same thing."

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/1/199461

Auburn&#39;s fall from glory continues

Auburn's fall from glory continues