Auburn hopes disappointment of abrupt loss creates hunger for NCAA Tournament

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Auburn hopes disappointment of abrupt loss creates hunger for NCAA Tournament

ByNathan King

5-6 minutes

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Bracketology Breakdown: Auburn's Chances At 1-Seed Following Loss To Texas A&M

 

TAMPA, Florida — The popular take after a highly seeded team is upset in a conference tournament setting is that it didn’t care that much about the event. Looking ahead to the NCAA tournament, etc. Even after the game, in the bowels of Amalie Arena, a cluster of reporters, there for another program, were discussing their opinions that Auburn “has been thinking about the (NCAA) tournament for weeks now.”

The emotion the Tigers conveyed after their 67-62 loss to Texas A&M said otherwise. Wendell Green Jr. threw his towel on the court and stormed to the locker room. Walker Kessler put both hands on his head and stared blankly after the final buzzer sounded. ESPN cameras caught Jabari Smith punching a banner or signage of some sort on his way to the locker room.

As Auburn players said last week, they know how good winning a title feels; they did it less than a week ago on their home floor. They wanted to make history as the first Auburn team in program history to win the regular-season and tournament title in the SEC. In simplest terms, they just want to win.

“It's just so easy to go, oh, A&M wanted it more — yeah, we came here and we didn't really want it,” Bruce Pearl said sarcastically. “... Give A&M credit. They played inspired. They played like their hair was on fire, because they're trying to get into the NCAA tournament.

“We wanted to win this championship. We wanted to build momentum going in, and we got beat by a really good team.”

Auburn’s fate for the NCAA tournament has now likely been sealed as a No. 2 seed in the field, seeing as teams like Kentucky and Kansas have much better opportunities to capture the final No. 1 seed.

And Pearl’s team is dragging its feet a bit heading into March Madness — relative to how it looked earlier in the season, and compared to the last time the Tigers went dancing, when they torched through the SEC tournament and won the title game by 20 points. Auburn, despite capturing the SEC regular-season crown, is 5-4 in its last nine games, including a 1-4 record in its past five games away from home.

Anything can happen in March. Teams can look dead in the water days before making an Elite Eight run. It would be silly, of course, to call Auburn one of those teams and write off the tournament prospects of a group that won 27 games this season and has a superstar in Smith.

Regardless, Pearl’s task, from now until Auburn’s first NCAA tournament game, either next Thursday or Friday, is to raise his team’s confidence level in the wake of a gut-punching loss.

That’s why Auburn’s coach said he was more reflective than angry in the postgame locker room. He reminded his players all they done this season to create such a big target on their backs every time they step on the floor. He looked ahead and attempted to lift their self-confidence, pointing to their defense and telling them how tough they will be to prepare for in the NCAA tournament.

“I want them to try to put a little wind in their sails heading into the tournament,” Pearl said.

That confidence has to start on offense. Auburn couldn’t throw a pebble into Tampa Bay in the first half, shooting 3-of-20 from deep and making just six shots total in the first half against the Aggies.

Green Jr. and Smith both said postgame that the issues were simple: Auburn was afforded open looks by Texas A&M defense, and simply couldn’t hit.

It’s one of the only concerns Pearl has about his otherwise well-rounded team heading into Selection Sunday.

“We've got to find a way to get the guys' confidence back a little bit with the shots,” Pearl said. “... Look, if you look at our percentages, our numbers in the league, defensively and rebounding and blocked shots and steals and pretty good in field goal percentage, assist-turnover ratio. We have great numbers.

“Our 3-point field goal percentage is very low. Doesn't take a rocket scientist.”

Auburn came back within 5 points with two minutes left in the game, thanks to late heroics from beyond the 3-point line by Green Jr. It was too little, too late, though, after the worst offensive first half of the season for the Tigers.

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Auburn must now convert disappointment into fire if it’s to make it to the second weekend of the tournament. According to Green Jr., that process began as soon as the clock hits zeros.

“Like (Pearl said before the game today: you have to throw the first punch,” Green Jr. said postgame. “So we just got to be ready to play. This is for sure going to make us more hungry, and hopefully just take it one game at a time and go deep in the tournament.”

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