KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2010 / SPORTS 5P
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Auburn may sport a championship-caliber defense
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
AUBURN, Ala. — Georgia wide receiver A.J. Green coasted past Auburn defenders throughout the first half Saturday, twice catching easy touchdown passes after having left a cornerback at least five yards in his wake.
It's been a common sight this year and has prompted the same question, in various forms, from everyone who has watched the Tigers: is this an SEC and NCAA championship-caliber defense?
While the Cam Newton probe hangs over the program like a sword of Damocles, many think something else could derail the No. 2 Tigers' chances of making it to Glendale, Ariz., for the national title game: a defense that is ranked No. 58 nationally.
"Offenses are very explosive these days," Auburn coach Gene Chizik
said. "All of us would love to have better numbers here in terms of what the final result is on paper. We're like anybody. We're a work in progress all the time. We're trying to get better."
It's a difficult task in the SEC, which, thanks to an influx of innovative minds the last few years — Auburn's Gus Malzahn, Mississippi State's Dan Mullen and Arkansas' Bobby Petrino, to name a few
Seven of the league's teams are averaging 30 points or better this season and 11 are scoring 25 points or more. It's something that hasn't happened in the last decade, despite the proliferation of spread offenses that have altered the game.
"Football's changing," Auburn defensive coordinator Ted Roof said. "If you look at the SEC, for instance, how much it's changed
since three or four years ago to now with all the spread offenses and the high tempo things and things of that nature.
"But that's the transition of college football."
Roof, a coaching veteran of 24 years, said it's cyclical, recalling when the wishbone was all the rage in the '80s before defenses caught up.
But spread offenses have increased scoring across the board lately. Does it mean teams are redefining defensive success?
"You define it by what you see when you turn on the tape and if you're getting what you're coaching." Roof said. "That's how. And obviously this being a bottom-line business, are you winning? But certainly we've got to keep working to get better because we've got some work to do."
Auburn's defense has been
skewered for allowing 24.9 points per game, which ranks eighth in the SEC. The Tigers have given up 34, 43, 31 and 31 points in separate conference games this year.
Since 2000, only one SEC champion has allowed more than 20
points per game (LSU in 2001, 22.3 ppg). No NCAA champion has allowed more than 20 points a game in that time.
But with Auburn's potent offense, does it matter?
The Tigers are averaging 42.8 points per game
the SEC with a higher average is Florida in 2008 (43,6 ppg).
this year, which, if it holds, will be tied for seventh in SEC history. The only team in the last decade from
"Surely on the paper, we'd look at the stats that some people want to look at closely and wish we were in a better place."
Only three NCAA champions in the last 10 years have averaged more points per game: Florida in 2008, Texas in 2004 (50.1 ppg) and Miami in 2001 (43.2).
GENE CHIZIK
Auburn coach
That gives Auburn's defense a larger margin of error. Against Arkansas, for instance, the Tigers allowed 566 yards and 43 points, but it forced three crucial turnovers in the fourth quarter that led to three
touchdowns in a 65-43 victory. For the time being, Chizik is looking at incremental improvement.
“You'd always like to be able to look and say: 'Hey, I wish we had played a little bit better here and a little bit better there,' he said.
“But when you're not playing well, the worst thing you can do is look back and say: 'We never got better in the game. We never adjusted in the game.'”
Despite Green's big day Saturday, Auburn eventually adjusted against Georgia, upping its defensive pressure in the second half and allowing only 10 points after the first quarter.
In a 49-31 game, it was more than enough.
"Surely on the paper, wed look at the stats that some people want to look at closely and wish we were in a better place," Chizik said. "There's also some states where we think we've done some things well, too. There's some give and take in there."
NBA
Miami Heat burn out the Suns with a 123-96 victory
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIAMI — All Chris Bosh needed to get his scoring touch back was a matchup with the Phoenix Suns. Bosh scored a season-high 35 points before sitting out the fourth quarter, LeBron James finished with 20 points and the Miami Heat ran away from the Suns 123-96 on Wednesday.
Dwyane Wade added 17 points, six rebounds and six assists for Miami, which used two big runs — a 24-9 spurt to end the first half, followed by an 18-3 flurry that closed the third quarter — to snap the Suns' three-game winning streak. James also had nine assists and eight boards.
All five Phoenix starters scored in double figures, led by Steve Nash' 17. Nash only had two assists,
matching his lowest total since Dec 29, 2008, against Oklahoma City, a span of 141 games.
Grant Hill scored 15 and Channing Frye added 14 for the Suns. Eddie House scored 15 for Miami, which outrebounded the Suns 42-32.
Bosh hit his first four shots and had 14 points by the time the game was nine minutes old. He has topped 30 points in three of his
and for a moment in the third quarter, the Heat seemed on the brink of blowing another huge edge. Nash's finger-roll with 3:14 left in the third cut what had been a 25-point Miami edge minutes earlier to 82-70.
All five Phoenix starters scored in double figures led by Steve Nash's 17.
last six meetings with Phoenix.
Bosh scored the game's next seven points, kickstarting a run that put
Miami wasted a 22-point home lead at head against Utah last week,
By the time Bosh went to the bench for the evening, snapping that streak was certain.
things away for Miami. House, a reserve, hit a 3-pointer with 35 seconds left to get the lead back to 24, and Wade had a spectacular three-point play — defensive rebound at one end, drive down-court, finger-roll layup while getting fouled and then highstepping past photographers — to make it 100-73 entering the fourth.
NBA
Thunder strike down Rockets
ASSOCIATED PRESS
OKLAHOMA CITY — Kevin Durant scored 24 points in only three quarters, Russell Westbrook had 21 points and 12 assists and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Houston Rockets 116-99 on Wednesday night for their most lopsided win this season.
Durant came in playing elevated minutes due to Jeff Green's absence from the lineup with a sprained left ankle and a series of close games for the Thunder. He was second in the league with 41½ minutes per game, but played just under 30 with Oklahoma City comfortably ahead.
Luis Scola had 26 points and Kevin Martin scored 19 for Houston, but both of them also stayed on the sideline in the final period with the Rockets way behind and in the second leg of a back-to-back.
Aaron Brooks missed his sixth
straight game and Yao Ming his fifth straight for Houston, while Oklahoma City's Green sat out for the fifth time in six games. All three have sprained left ankles.
Oklahoma City never trailed after responding to Scola's opening basket with a 10-0 run, then put the game away late in the third quarter.
The Rockets pulled to 75-69 on Martin's layup midway through the third, but Houston went more than 4 minutes without another basket to fall behind by 15. Eric Maynor's 3-pointer from the right wing made it 89-74 with 1:31 left in the period.
Maynor buried another 3-pointer in early in the fourth quarter to make it 99-82, and Oklahoma City would eventually lead by 20.
Oklahoma City committed a season-low nine turnovers including one for purposely letting the shot clock run out
in the final seconds — and easily snapped Houston's streak of five games without allowing an opponent to score more than 100 points.
Scola scored 16 of Houston's first 27 points, including six during an 8-0 run that allowed the Rockets erase a nine-point deficit. Courtney Lee's 3-pointer tied it at 30 early in the second quarter, but Oklahoma City scored 13 of the next 15 points to take control.
James Harden hit two free throws and a 3-pointer, then Durant finished it off with a floater in the lane that banked in after the whistle sounded on Chuck Hayes' foul. Durant made the ensuing free throw to complete the three-point play and make it 43-32.
That 11-point margin was still intact when Westbrook was fouled with less than a second left in the first half and hit three tree throws to make it 64-53 at halftime.
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