https://news.vice.com/article/silk-road-bitcoin-auction-opened-by-us-marshals-service
And the prof seems to assume that the auction price will be known right after the closing, but the USMS documents say that someone will have to submit a FOIA to get that information. (Statements by participants cannot be trusted, they will care much about the effect on price.)
And the prof also claims that the USMS wants to auction the coins before they lose value, whereas I do not see any haste (the auction was authorized quite a while ago) and do not believe they would have that motivation (the USMS has no mandate or obligation to schedule auctions for maximum profit, all it cares is to have a fair auction with enough bidders).