There might not be a player on the Auburn women’s basketball team who doles out more compliments about KeKe Carrier than Alli Smalley.

Smalley will laugh and chuckle alongside the postgame podium with Carrier, Auburn’s only senior, and will frequently remark how much better the Tigers are when Carrier is stationed 5 feet from the basket.

Smalley just draws the line at accompanying arguably the most popular person on Auburn’s campus from point A to point B.

“If you’re going to eat lunch somewhere on campus with her,” Smalley said, “you better plan to leave an hour early.”

Carrier laughed, pushed back in her chair and gently shoved Smalley after she disclosed her not-so deep, dark secret after Sunday’s upset victory over No. 14 Kentucky.

She then blushed because, well, it’s totally true.

“A lot of people know me,” said the 6-foot-7 Carrier, still blushing. “They just want to talk about the last game or something. I’m a real people person and I like people.”

Auburn’s biggest player on the court and biggest figurehead off it is playing on borrowed time. Any of these SEC Tournament games, starting today against Florida, could be her last.

“This is it for her,” coach Nell Fortner said. “I think she has had some nice games the last few games and we hope we can keep her down that path.”

Until this season, Carrier’s off-the-court popularity might have been viewed as a distraction that directly interfered with her progress on the basketball court. In hindsight, it very well could have been.

Carrier was an admitted underachiever during her first three seasons with the Tigers, often failing to produce more than 3 minutes of steady play at a time without breaking for air and water. She had size no one, not even teams in the SEC, could match, but, aside from a decent freshman season, her production wasn’t backing it up.

Carrier stops short of being specific whenever she refers to what caused problems for her in previous seasons, but something was amiss.

“It was a lot of different factors that I kind of let get to me,” Carrier said. “I’m over that and I think I’ve matured over the past couple years, as far as how to handle stuff and deal with certain situations.

“I’m still growing and I’m having fun right now.”

Fun for Carrier has come in the form of real production, which she’s brought in a variety of ways.

She started the season on the bench before Fortner was forced to play her. Her performance during non-conference play was sterling, as she took advantage of weaker competition on her way to nights such as Dec. 1, when she scored a career-high 28 points and grabbed 13 rebounds
against North Carolina A&T.

Her play during the conference season hasn’t been as statistically strong, but her presence in the paint has kept Auburn afloat during this
rebuilding season. She’s coming off the bench again because Fortner thinks it gives Auburn a better look defensively, but she’s still finding ways to score and rebound.

Her 13 points and six rebounds over 25 minutes were big Sunday, but her defense on Kentucky’s Victoria Dunlap proved vital. Dunlap, one of the conference’s best players, managed just 4 points on 2-of-15 shooting.

“She’s being more assertive,” Fortner said. “KeKe is such a nice person and sometimes she brings that onto the court. She needs to check that at the door and bring your toughness with you.

“She is finding a way to do that and that’s definitely a good thing for us.”

Don’t get Fortner wrong. She wouldn’t change a thing about Carrier’s affable, outgoing personality. In fact, she recently pitched to a bevy of reporters the opportunity to follow Carrier around campus for a day, just to see how much attention she draws.

There’s just one problem. There wouldn’t be enough time in the day to make it happen.

“She is a star, a celebrity,” Fortner said. “It is a production … She’s so nice that she won’t say ‘I have to go.’ It is hard for her to put people off, at all.”

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