Men vs. Tennessee - Championship

[CR 2,446]

I sat in the Civic Center in 1985 and watched AU stun the basketball world by winning the SEc Tournament in what was supposed to be Sonny's swan song. Never thought I would see it again. Bruce has won back to back SEC regular season and tournament championships at what for years was the worst basketball school in the conference. Can't say enough about what he and this group of players has accomplished. That's as good a big game performance I've seen from any AU team in any sport ever. I'm still stunned at how well AU played today.

[Maverick.AU 13,281]

Man it has been a good week/weekend for AU sports

[G8orH8or 61]

5  seed? WTH? We just got placed as a 5 seed, same as Ms St. Crap

[Mikey 16,663]

3 minutes ago, Maverick.AU said:

Man it has been a good week/weekend for AU sports

Basketball 4-0 and tournament champs, Baseball sweeps Tennessee and Softball sweeps A&M. AD Greene has it workin!

[AURealist 2,185]

6 minutes ago, G8orH8or said:

5  seed? WTH? We just got placed as a 5 seed, same as Ms St. Crap

Yep.  And Kansas next.  WTH is right.

[cptau 169]

5th seed playing in Utah??.   I smell the NCAA picking teams by size of fan base to attract TV ratings.    We deserve a higher seed. 

[auburntiger1987 759]

Thought we could have been the 4. Think nm state is an interesting opponent but their schedule was laughable. 

[GwillMac6 20,694]

 

 

[CameronCrazy 1,074]

WAR EAGLE!! This was the biggest Auburn basketball win in my lifetime (I’m 34)!

[GwillMac6 20,694]

 

[GwillMac6 20,694]

Ben Wolk • AuburnSports.com

@benjaminwolk

 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Malik Dunbar laid on the ground covered in confetti with a cardboard cutout of the SEC logo. His smile, as it always is, was the widest of anyone in Bridgestone Arena. His small forward colleague Samir Doughty saw him laying there and jumped off the championship stage to join Dunbar in reveling in the almost surreal moment. Bryce Brown, not to be left out, dove in as well.

And the three began to yell the same thing together.

"We ain't done yet! We ain't done yet!" they shouted in unison.

What they'd done up to that point, however, was remarkable. Unbelievable, almost.

Even after the victory, a 20-point annihilation of a potential No. 1 seed Tennessee, Auburn's players seemed to be dumbfounded by what they just witnessed. They weren't alone. The Tennessee faithful — who made up probably 95 percent of the "neutral-site" crowd — certainly couldn't as they marched toward the exits with three minutes still on the clock. Those who have watched and covered this team all year shared similar surprise.

The Tigers put together an unheard-of run as far as Auburn basketball lore goes.

Four games, four days, four wins.

"Those last four seconds of the game, I just couldn't believe we got the W," Dunbar said. "We weren't even talking to each other. We were just smiling, couldn't believe what we were seeing, watching the end of the game. Every time we hit a shot, we felt closer and closer. It was just a good feeling. I wouldn't want to feel it with any other group."

The tightness of this specific group couldn't be more obvious.

It was tested early in the SEC title game — and in the most trying way possible. Jared Harper picked up his second foul two minutes into the game. Bruce Pearl called it a "blessing in disguise." He entered the game planning to limit Harper's minutes to a maximum of 32. Little did he know, fate would only give Harper two first-half minutes because of foul trouble.

Auburn has struggled for two years to win games when Harper isn't at his best. It's a burden Pearl references often. Two minutes into the biggest game of the season, the plan shifted dramatically.

J'Von McCormick, who was in JUCO at this time last year, was called upon. In the 18 minutes that followed, Auburn went on a 27-13 run to close out the half. The Tigers took a nine-point halftime lead despite shooting 25 percent from 3-point range and, for most of it, without its typical game-deciding player.

"We don't win the SEC Tournament championship in 2019 without J'Von McCormick," Pearl said. "We recruited J'Von straight up knowing he'd have a chance to challenge those guys [Harper and Brown], but he knew he'd probably have to back them up. He was OK with that. He's done an amazing job with it. It's a great lesson in the sense that everyone is so busy trying to make the right decision instead of trying to make the decision they made work."

For McCormick, it was confirmation he chose Auburn over a place where he could've played a bigger role.

"It just feels so unreal. I just knew my whole life I was an underdog. Coming here, I knew we were all going to be an underdog. I just wanted show everybody what we could do as a family," McCormick said. "It's definitely validation. All of us could've went anywhere. We all were all brought here for this reason right here to shock the world."

It wouldn't have been possible without Auburn's defensive effort.

The Tigers forced 17 turnovers and 14 steals. Per KenPom, Auburn leads all of college basketball in turnover percentage. The SEC title clincher put that on a national stage. In the first half alone, Auburn won the turnover battle 12-3. Every other possession seemed to have some kind of deflection or at least some kind of shot affecting on the defensive end.

Pearl, a self-proclaimed "huge Auburn football fan," cited a conversation he had with defensive coordinator Kevin Steele this offseason. It has become part of the basketball team's approach and identity this season on the defensive end.

"I spent some time with Kevin Steele in the offseason. I asked Kevin, who is the best defensive coordinator in all of college football, I asked him, 'What makes the defense so unique? What makes it so special?'" Pearl said. "Kevin will deflect all the credit himself. It's not about the formations. It's not about the packages. He said, 'We're going to pursue the ball relentlessly.' When you hear him say it, you have no question that his defense is going to pursue the ball relentlessly. If you won't, somebody else will. Period, the end. We are undersized. Deshaun Davis is undersized. Right? But he's going to pursue the ball relentlessly. That's the way Auburn's defense plays. That's the way our defense has started to play. That's responsible for this March run."

To close it out, Auburn needed a crisp second half.

The Tigers got it.

A nine-point lead stretched to as much as 23 points. Harper got back on the court and orchestrated the offense. Chuma Okeke played like the future pro that he is — something Pearl and Brown both alluded to on the post-game podium — finishing with 18 points and 13 boards. Bryce Brown, later named SEC Tournament most valuable player, dropped a game-high 19 points and seemed to hit a big shot whenever Auburn needed it.

The win meant more for the program than just 2019 season. It's the first time since 1985 the Tigers have gone back to Auburn as SEC Tournament champions. Auburn legendary play-by-play announcer and former coach Sonny Smith was on the sideline the last time the Tigers accomplished as much. He sat there again, amazed at what these team has accomplished, how Pearl has altered this program.

"This establishes this program as one of the best in the SEC. You could see it from the get-go. This program is going to go beyond '85 because they've established it with really young players. They're going to be back. They got everything going for them. They're going to have a great recruiting year coming in. After ours, we faded away, and I left the program. Well he's not going to leave this program. It's going to be great for Auburn," Smith said. "I knew Bruce Pearl wouldn't come to a place where he couldn't build a program. He was doing great in television. But he took this one. He knew what he could do here. This is it. This is a big deal right here."

Auburn closed out the win and celebrated accordingly. When they made it back to the locker room, the celebration hadn't deteriorated much. Dunbar was FaceTiming family and made sure all of his teammates were in the frame so all of his family could enjoy it together. Every player credited somebody else for the win. All 10 rotational players served an integral role in Auburn's title run, capping off the pre-NCAA Tournament season on an eight-game win streak.

Amid the celebration, however, Dunbar wanted to re-iterate something to make it clear — something he'd said as he laid on the floor with Doughty and Brown, covered in confetti.

"We ain't done yet," Dunbar smiled. "We ain't done yet."

 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,697]

they said we were the second worst basketball program RPI wise in the closing remarks of the ESPN telecast...that's pretty crazy

[Sully to Beasley 643]

       WAR EAGLE WIN FOR AUBURN POWER OF DIXIELAND!!!!!

THE AUBURN TIGERS, CHAMPIONS OF THE SEC TOURNAMENT!

[GwillMac6 20,694]

23 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

they said we were the second worst basketball program RPI wise in the closing remarks of the ESPN telecast...that's pretty crazy

Yup right ahead of TCU. We historically are the worst program in the SEC. Bruce is doing his best to change that. 

[AU64 10,122]

1 hour ago, Mikey said:

Basketball 4-0 and tournament champs, Baseball sweeps Tennessee and Softball sweeps A&M. AD Greene has it workin!

Didn't JJ hire all of these coaches?      Just wondering  

[GwillMac6 20,694]

 

[alexava 6,973]

I just watched the game. I took my son fishing today and recorded the game. I stayed off the phone and social media and watched like it was live ( except fast forward through stoppages. Thrilled to support these champions. This was the best defensive game I have watched all season. Offense not bad either lol.   

[gr82be 14,449]

12 minutes ago, alexava said:

I just watched the game. I took my son fishing today and recorded the game. I stayed off the phone and social media and watched like it was live ( except fast forward through stoppages. Thrilled to support these champions. This was the best defensive game I have watched all season. Offense not bad either lol.   

I couldn't be that disciplined. My curiosity gets the better of me. 

[alexava 6,973]

4 minutes ago, gr82be said:

I couldn't be that disciplined. My curiosity gets the better of me. 

Only one other time I was able to do it. The Texas a&m football game in 2014. I caught up just after halftime on that one. Today the game had been over hours before I started watching. 

[augolf1716 21,248]

1 hour ago, AU64 said:

Didn't JJ hire all of these coaches?      Just wondering  

Yes he did but I can tell you Allen in the short time he has been here saved us from our beloved President who was hell bent to fire Bruce after the Chuck Person crap hit the fan. 

[ChltteTiger 649]

We might just be a basketball school after all! WAR EAGLE! WAY TO GO BRUCE AND TEAM!!

[ArgoEagle 1,792]

5 hours ago, ArgoEagle said:

No way we should be anything more than a 4 seed now. Travesty if we are.

Got to be sec bias. This is rediculous.

[AU64 10,122]

25 minutes ago, augolf1716 said:

Yes he did but I can tell you Allen in the short time he has been here saved us from our beloved President who was hell bent to fire Bruce after the Chuck Person crap hit the fan. 

That's good...….Glad he kept BP but it was JJ who went out on the limb to hire him.  but saw a couple disparaging comments about JJ along the way on posts today and just wondered ...why that was even necessary?  ....and why Greene is getting credit for the accomplishments of coaches he did not hire? .....just wondering.  

Folks can facepalm or whatever....but facts are facts....

[DAG 34,002]

15 minutes ago, AU64 said:

That's good...….Glad he kept BP but it was JJ who went out on the limb to hire him.  but saw a couple disparaging comments about JJ along the way on posts today and just wondered ...why that was even necessary?  ....and why Greene is getting credit for the accomplishments of coaches he did not hire? .....just wondering.  

Folks can facepalm or whatever....but facts are facts....

I’ve always said that JJ should get credit because it was indeed him who hired these coaches who have us competing in all 3 sports. But Greene should definitely get support for sticking with both Pearl and Gus, as it seems they have had resistance from within. It also seems like the relationships are great with Greene and our coaches. I don’t know if that was the case with JJ.

[fredst 9,064]

12 minutes ago, AU64 said:

That's good...….Glad he kept BP but it was JJ who went out on the limb to hire him.  but saw a couple disparaging comments about JJ along the way on posts today and just wondered ...why that was even necessary?  ....and why Greene is getting credit for the accomplishments of coaches he did not hire? .....just wondering.  

Folks can facepalm or whatever....but facts are facts....

Why can't we just enjoy an incredible weekend of Auburn sports without having any of these discussions period (not calling you out 64, just saying in general)? This is why I'm not going over to the football board for awhile, lol