Coach Jeff Lebo says Dollard didn't meet responsibilities/Todd Van Emst
Building Auburn’s basketball program into a winner has been a trying task for Jeff Lebo, who is heading toward his fifth season. There was obvious progress in 2007 and great optimism for 2008. But an injury to post standout Korvotney Barber and suspensions proved too much to overcome.
Lebo sat down with AuburnUndercover.com senior writer Phillip Marshall to talk about the state of Auburn basketball.
Auburn Undercover: It’s been difficult over the years for anyone to win consistently in basketball at Auburn. Can you do that?
Lebo: “Yeah, we can. It’s about getting everything to fall into place, to get things going and start playing well.”
Auburn Undercover: Do you feel like your program is ready to turn that corner?
Lebo: “I hope so. In Year 3, we made some strides, but we still haven’t had a year when we’ve had everybody playing.Even that year, we didn’t have (Josh) Dollard and (Quan) Prowell for part of the year and we had a chance to win the SEC West.”
Auburn Undercover: Talk about how you feel about the coming season.
Lebo: “We’ll have a lot of new faces. We’ve got all our guys in school right now that are coming back. (Freshman) Frankie Sullivan is in school right now. We are still waiting for some other guys to get some work done this summer. Vot is back pretty healthy. We lost two players in Boubacar Sylla and Matt Heramb, but we feel like we replaced them with some guys we think will help us this year.”
Auburn Undercover: Do you expect all the signees to be eligible?
Lebo: “We’ve got a little work to do with a couple of them. They just have to go to some classes. Junior college kids have to do a little extra work being in the SEC. I don’t anticipate having any problems.”
Auburn Undercover: What do you see as the keys to next season?
Lebo: “We have to stay healthy. We have to have some new guys step up and make some plays for us and be good enough to compete and play major minutes. I think Tay Waller is a guy who can really shoot the ball like we haven’t had since I’ve been here. He’s a guy you have to defend two steps past the 3-point line. That should help us. We really haven’t had a guy who was just a knockdown threat from the perimeter every time he caught the ball. I think Frankie Sullivan can score. The biggest thing for us is we have to have bodies out there so we can practice. Last year was so frustrating. Our kids that played worked hard, but when you don’t have that edge every day in practice and know you have to bring it every day, how much better can you really get? We have to have that. Hopefully, we’ll have some competition in practice, competition for some spots and playing time. That always seems to make your team get better as the season goes on.”
Auburn Undercover: With the new arena scheduled to open in 2010, is it important to build some momentum>
Lebo:“I think so. You want to build some excitement as that thing goes up. You want to be at your peak as you move into it. That’s something that is important as you are going to a new arena. That’s in the back of your minds maybe, but we just have to get better. We have to get healthy, get better, play better, have some depth, do some things to build momentum first. We have to have some guys step up and play awfully well this year. If we start playing well and winning games, people will come out and get excited about Auburn basketball and excited about the move over to the new place. It can’t get here fast enough. I think it is going to help our program in so many ways. It’s going to help recruiting, help having a place for them to go work out all the time. There’s going to be a pride factor going into a place like that. They are going to feel good about themselves.”
Auburn Undercover: Has it helped to recruiting for players to know they’ll play in a new arena?
Lebo: “I don’t think so yet. When I was being recruited and they were building the Smith Center (at North Carolina), that was all well and good. But as soon as they say it, you start to calculate how many years you are going to play in it. If it’s not more than half, it really doesn’t affect a guy. It’s a picture and a vision right now.”
Auburn Undercover:Frank Tolbert seemed to bring a lot of energy and leadership to you team. How hard will he be to replace?
Lebo: “It’s hard. The energy is one thing, but his experience, too. Frank played in a lot of games and was in a lot of situations. The thing about Frank was his junior and senior years he started to be a little more consistent. The first two years you didn’t know what you were going to get. Frank was a pretty intelligent guy. He played all five positions for us. That will be hard to replace. Frank and Quan, your two leading scorers and most athletic guys, you lose. Quan was our best 3-point shooter and he was playing inside. Those two guys will be difficult for us to replace.”
Auburn Undercover: Quantez Robertson has played a lot of point guard and a lot of 2 guard. What are the plans for him?
Lebo: “Tez will play point and he will play 2. We’ll even slide him down to 3. If you can play 2 for us, you can play 3. Tez will be a senior. He knows what I want out there. He’s a good leader. I like him at both spots. He’s better at the 1 in some areas and better at the 2 in other areas. He’ll be able to play both for us.”
