What’s this about Baskeeball?

This is about the time of year that I start following college basketball again, as I need to know who I’m going to be betting on during the NCAA tournament. In a few weeks (once the final brackets are set) I’ll call my friend Jay and have him tell me who I should watch out for this year, and who’s overrated (Jay is the man. And not just with basketball).

Now as my inner fair weather basketball fan awakens from his 10+ month hibernation, I’ve been shocked by the state of affairs at my beloved Auburn. Apparently, we’re doing pretty damn good (for Auburn). To give you some background on how we traditionally view the sport of basketball on the plains, because we’ve sucked for so long, most Auburn fans think that basketball is played on a horse… in a pool… covered in ice… and with a flat bat.

This apathy from the bulk of the Tiger faithful is due in equal parts to how crummy our basketball team has been in the last decade or so, how unwaveringly devoted to we are to football, and how crappy of a facility Beard-Eves Coliseum is (was as of next year).

So here we go into the weekend prior to the SEC Tournament, holding a 9-6 conference record and a first round bye in the SEC tourney, facing a veteran LSU squad (apparently the only decent team in the SEC) on Saturday to keep any hope alive of getting a bid to the big dance.

If we win against LSU, our conference record will be 10-6. As you may have heard, no team who’s gone 10-6 in the SEC has ever not been invited to the NCAA tournament. However, as we proved in 2004 with football, if someone is going to do well and be left out of some sort of sporting event, Auburn’s a pretty decent bet.

In closing, I’m following my own basketball team closer than I ever have, Auburn coach Jeff Lebo is looking like he may get to work in a new coliseum next year, and Kirk: you fucking called it.