Things are not looking incredibly bright for Auburn basketball at the moment.
After they fell 88-75 at the hands of the No. 21 Arkansas Razorbacks on the road on Saturday, Feb. 14, the Auburn Tigers have now dropped four-consecutive games, sit two games below .500 in conference play and just three games above .500 overall.
Considering everything the Tigers have accomplished in recent years, including two appearances in the Final Four, the product that has been on the court for the Tigers this season has left a lot to be desired.
From lackluster performances in big games to questionable decision making and leadership from top players, a righting of the ship appears to be a need for the Tigers.
Head coach Steven Pearl announced prior to the Arkansas contest that star forward Keyshawn Hall had been indefinitely suspended for not upholding the standard of the program. He added that the duration of the suspension would be up to Hall.
I want to clarify my support for Pearl's decision. If any player on the team — regardless of the role they play — is failing to uphold the standard of the program with their behavior and decision making, action needs to be taken and consequences are needed.
While I don't know the circumstances that led to the suspension of Hall, I hope he learns from it and takes his role as a leader more seriously from this point forward.
While the four teams the Tigers have fallen to during this skid, Tennessee, Alabama, Vanderbilt and Arkansas, are all high quality basketball teams, it is still concerning to see Auburn not even seem close to competing.
While each game was competitive at some point, it never felt like Auburn was going to pull any of them off, which is something Pearl and company are striving to change.
I still think Pearl has the potential to be an effective head coach for the Tigers, but there are certainly things I would like to see go differently for this team in the future. One of those things is the transition to a player-lead program, which will obviously require members of the team to step up their game from a leadership standpoint.