Auburn Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl lays down the truth after March Madness win over Alabama State
You could argue that the Auburn Tigers basketball program has been the best in the country this season. Of course, we won't know if that is factual until March Madness is over, but it's easy to see right now that the Tigers are in good shape to claim that title. But on Thursday in their […]
You could argue that the Auburn Tigers basketball program has been the best in the country this season. Of course, we won't know if that is factual until March Madness is over, but it's easy to see right now that the Tigers are in good shape to claim that title.
But on Thursday in their first tournament game against Alabama State, they certainly underplayed their opponent. And, that has sometimes been the story of this team this season. They won a lot of games, against some of the best teams in the sport. But, they also played some really close games against teams they should have beaten handily. Alabama State was no different, despite winning by 20.
Don't get it twisted, though, Alabama State is good. Auburn is just so much better than what they showed on Thursday.
"They were a formidable opponent," head coach Bruce Pearl said after the game. "We didn't play our best, but I think they had a lot to do with it. So I just give them a great deal of credit. Trust me we can play — and we'll need to play — a lot better. Again, we missed 14 free throws, we made 18, and that's going to catch us in a close game. These next games have a chance to be closer, so we've got to sharpen up in that area.
"Part of that is valuing possessions, and if there's one thing I can get my guys from this point forward to lock into right now, did we value every possession on the defensive end? Did we value any offensive end scoring through contact? Did we just rely on the whistle? And then would we finish plays? That's the biggest difference right now between the way we were playing earlier in the season and the way we're playing right now.
Only two Tigers' starters ended in double figures on Thursday, only four players total. Alabama State gave Auburn fits, including making things tough on a guy like Johni Broome, who, yes had a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds, but this is a potential player-of-the-year winner we are talking about here. He was getting frustrated all game long, so much so the color and play-by-play analyst mentioned it an abnormal amount of times on the broadcast.
Some will look at this game and be happy with the result. And for the most part you should — the Tigers won by 20 points in the Round of 64, where things can get crazy, especially in the recent 1 seed-16 seed matchups we have seen the last few years. You can even add to the fact that Miles Kelly scored 23 points on seven three-pointers.
But, even with all of that, Pearl was not happy about the way they played.
"Yeah, we shot 50 percent, we had a great assist-to-turnover ratio, we missed some free throws in that game too, but we actually played better against Yale… I thought our effort and energy could have been better. I thought Alabama State was able to beat us off the closeouts a little bit too much," Pearl continued. "I thought our bigs did a pretty good job of challenging shots at the rim. But we just weren't sharp… I think the other thing too, our teams always play with great effort and energy, or you have to or our system doesn't really work, and I just think we didn't tonight."
The Tigers are going to rest Friday and look forward to playing Creighton on Saturday, a team that they have played twice all time, with one time being in the tournament. The last time they met was in 2000 when the No. 7 seed Tigers beat the No. 10 seed Blue Jays 72-69.
Auburn football had a makeover at QB this offseason, and the Tigers have an extremely strong claim about their group of signal callers
Auburn has a strong claim for their quarterback room.
