AUBURN, Alabama -- Despite a disastrous SEC season, Auburn basketball coach

Tony Barbee

still has the support of his athletic director.

Auburn athletic director

Jay Jacobs

issued a statement of support for Barbee on Friday, effectively ending any leftover speculation about the coach's job security after the Tigers' season ended with a 71-62 loss to Texas A&M in an SEC Tournament play-in game on Wednesday.

"This was obviously a disappointing season for our men’s basketball program, but I want to commend our players and especially our seniors for playing hard all year," Jacobs said. "My expectation is for our program to show significant improvement under Coach Barbee’s leadership. Coach Barbee and I will continue to work together to support our basketball program at the highest level so we can give our fans the kind of program they expect and deserve."

Barbee is 35-59 overall at Auburn, and 12-38 in the SEC after a dismal season that saw the Tigers lose their last 10 games, 16 of their last 17 games, finish with fewer than 10 wins for the first time since 1988-89 and end up in last place in the 14-team SEC.

But Barbee steadfastly insisted in the final week of the season that he saw hope for the future despite the prospect of losing

Frankie Sullivan

,

Rob Chubb

,

Josh Wallace

and

Noel Johnson

.

"Nothing's changed. I feel the exact same way," Barbee said on Monday before the SEC Tournament. "Excited about the foundation that these seniors have left, going forward. Excited about the young guys that we've got in the program and what they've learned and how they've learned under fire this year, which is going to make them more prepared coming back as sophomores, and excited about the group that we've got incoming."

Auburn is relying on former transfer

K.T. Harrell

-- who tweeted earlier this week that he believed the future was bright -- to lead another influx of talent that includes point guard signee

Tajh Shamsid-Deen

, forward signee

Benas Griciunas

and center signee

Ronald Delph

, along with committed guard

Dion Wade

and one more spot that Barbee and his staff have been working to fill.

But Barbee's biggest problem in three years hasn't been landing recruits. Six of Barbee's first eight recruits are no longer on campus, and he dismissed forward

Sharief Adamu

after seven games this season. Former Tigers Earnest Ross, Andre Malone and Ty Armstrong all transferred after Barbee's first season, too.

Barbee is a tough, vocal coach, and outgoing senior

Frankie Sullivan

, who has defended his coach's style all season long, said some players take time getting used to it.

"It's not a problem to me," Sullivan said. "It's a problem with kids these days when you can't take the criticism or the punishment. You should just take it as motivation and him not laying it down."

Despite that coaching style and the losing streak, Auburn's players refused to place the blame on Barbee, who apologized to the team and vowed to be better following the Tigers' loss to Texas A&M on Wednesday.

Instead, the players have turned the blame back onto an inability to buy into Barbee's system.

"Everybody needs to come in as one and have the same mindset," guard

Chris Denson

said. "You used to be the man at your high school but your role might change here. ... People just need to buy into that."

Barbee's chief task, as it stands right now, is to retain the core of a team that would return

Chris Denson

,

Allen Payne

and

Asauhn Dixon-Tatum a

s seniors;

Shaquille Johnson

,

Jordan Price

,

Brian Greene Jr.

and

Jordon Granger

as sophomores.

Auburn's five first-year players have given no indication that they plan on leaving, at times steadfastly refusing the possibility.

"Everybody's going to stick around," Price said in the locker room after Auburn's SEC Tournament loss. "We've got a bright year as a future next year, we believe, so we're going to stay together and work everything out."

Denson and Payne have already taken vocal leadership roles, especially in support of Barbee, as Auburn's SEC schedule slipped into disaster.

Part of that was by design. After a blowout loss to Ole Miss late in the season, Barbee indicated publicly that the coaching staff and players had an eye toward building the nucleus of next year's squad, and both Denson and Payne step into obvious leadership roles.

"It has to. It can’t start the second session of the summer, it has to start right now," Denson, who will be Auburn's leading returning scorer, said. "Nobody is talking about leaving the locker room, everybody is excited about what we can do."

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