Pearl Talks Arkansas Win

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al.com

 

Cohen: That win at Arkansas? Yeah, that’s why Auburn went to App State

Updated: Jan. 06, 2024, 4:59 p.m.|Published: Jan. 06, 2024, 4:41 p.m.

6–7 minutes

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This is an opinion column

Auburn walked onto the Bud Walton Arena hardwood in the middle of a red-and-white stripe out, in front of among the most intimidating road environments the SEC has to offer knowing this would be a day to say how far this team has come since its lowest moment of the season.

It left with an 83-51 win over Arkansas. It was Auburn’s (12-2, 1-0) sixth win ever at Bud Walton Arena. And maybe more notably, it was the largest margin of victory for any visitor in the 30-year history of the building.

It was a statement. To do that at any point in the season is impressive. To do it in the first game of the SEC slate is even more so.

But that doesn’t quite explain all of why head coach Bruce Pearl sat back and smiled when AL.com asked him about the criticism he faced about his previous road game.

“It’s never the wrong time to do the right thing,” Pearl said after beating Arkansas. “So playing those teams on the road, nobody does it. Why don’t they do it? Because they’re afraid of getting beat and they’re afraid they’re going to get criticized. I’m too old for that stuff.”

Auburn traveled up into the mountains to play Appalachian State for a Dec. 3 true road game in Boone, North Carolina. It’s highly uncommon for a Power 5 team like Auburn to play a non-conference road game against a mid-major team like Appalachian State.

Pearl has said he did it because it traced back to his coaching roots — knowing how impactful it was when he was at Milwaukee to have big-name teams be willing to play his group. Pearl has said he did it because it would prepare his team for road games to come. That putting his team up against a hostile environment in a game it should win would be beneficial in building the strength of his Tigers.

One problem, Auburn lost.

The thing with a road game against Appalachian State Auburn had hardly anything to gain and far more to lose concerning its NCAA Tournament resume. Had Auburn won, it’s not a relatively big story.

But Auburn lost. Pearl and his program received a significant amount of criticism from national media. The talking heads posited why Auburn would even bother playing a game like that. Why take a risk like that?

For an afternoon like Saturday. That is why.

Auburn shot the ball horribly against Appalachian State. It made only three of 27 3-point attempts. Pearl knew the crowd rattled his team in Boone. And early at Bud Walton Arena, Auburn seemed to trend that way again.

Auburn opened the game 3-15 from the field against Arkansas. Against the Mountaineers, a similar game did in the Tigers.

Against the Razorbacks, the Tigers responded. It’s because Auburn already had road game experience long before entering SEC play.

After Auburn’s Chad Baker-Mazara made a 3-pointer with just over 12 minutes remaining in the first half, Auburn outscored Arkansas 27-19 before halftime. Baker-Mazara scored seven points himself in the last four minutes of the first half.

His play gave Auburn a spark and momentum going to the locker room.

That momentum turned into Auburm’s most dominant second half of the 2023-24 season.

“I said, ‘Look, we can’t go to App State and not think we can win, and think we’re going to beat Arkansas in the first (SEC) game,’” Pearl said. “‘Really?’ We had some issues at App State and we weren’t able to win the game, but I definitely thought that experience helped us this time around.”

Auburn’s best player, center Johni Broome, bounced back from a first half where he didn’t score at all to drop 14 in the second half. Auburn shot 58% from the field in the second half.

And the Auburn defense only allowed six Arkansas baskets the entire latter period. The Razorbacks shot 22% in the second half.

Auburn won the second half 46-21. It was dominant. It silenced that same Bud Walton Arena crowd and sent Arkansas fans heading for the exits with more than four minutes to go. It led to a very visibly Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman in his post-game press conference.

“Yeah, we stunk,” Musselman said.

Auburn has won all of its seven games since that Appalachian State loss. It’s won those games by an average of 25 points.

Several Auburn players said that loss was a turning point.

“We just told ourselves ‘That’s enough losing,’” Auburn forward Chris Moore said Thursday before Auburn traveled to Arkansas. “We know we should’ve never lost the App State game, but we did.”

In those seven games, Auburn beat Power 5 teams like Indiana and USC, but it was not lost on them that this challenge loomed. Auburn prepared for its trip to Arkansas by blasting crowd noise in practices. On Auburn’s pregame radio show, Pearl said he asked football head coach Hugh Freeze for ideas on simulating noise similar to a football practice. That would imitate what it’s like to not hear Pearl from the bench, as would be the case at Bud Walton Arena.

The motivation and preparation Auburn had when it walked into Bud Walton Arena on Saturday? That’s why Auburn went to Appalachian State. Auburn was ready for Arkansas, was ready to go on the road, because of that supposedly perplexing December day.

That loss at Appalachian State is likely a significant factor in why 31 Associated Press poll voters didn’t include Auburn on their ballots last week. The name on the front of those Appalachian State jerseys left an impression.

But to Pearl? The ends — a win at Arkansas that could wind up being among the top merits of Auburn’s NCAA Tournament resume — justified his means.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at mcohen@al.com

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Poor ol MUsselmouth. he was not too mouthy after the game....................grins

 

‘Yeah, we stunk’: Everything Arkansas’ Eric Musselman said after being blown out by Auburn

Updated: Jan. 06, 2024, 4:35 p.m.|Published: Jan. 06, 2024, 4:21 p.m.

6–8 minutes

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Bruce Pearl and 25th-ranked Auburn’s men’s basketball team took to Arkansas to open SEC play on Saturday afternoon and left having handed the Razorbacks their most lopsided home loss in program history as the Tigers topped the Razorbacks 83-51.

Here’s everything Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman said in his post-game press conference, which overflowed with frustration.

What happened in the second half that caused things to get away?

“We’re pretty disappointed in 1 through 14 tonight. I had a great crowd. Understanding how hard the SEC is, understanding the competitive nature, understanding the size, understanding the physicality, understanding the will to win. Give Auburn a ton of credit, they came in here and kicked our butts. That’s quite obvious. This team has not resembled what we built the last four years from a competitive standpoint, from a defensive standpoint, from a loose ball-getting standpoint. So what’re we going to do? We’ve got to try and figure it out as much as we can. Guys got opportunities and didn’t seize the opportunities. One hundred and sixty-five passes when our goal is 200. Again, we’ve built something that I thought was really special. And this group of guys has not carried on the tradition, so we’ve gotta continue to get as best we can with the group we have right now.”

Was there anything positive in a game like this? At least in the first 20 minutes?

“I thought we played good in the first half. Not good, but we played decent enough to give ourselves a chance. Did not play the end of the first half very well at all. Just the competitive fiber, you know, it wasn’t there for 40 minutes.”

Inaudible question

“We talked about that over and over. They’re a team that will put you on the foul line. They do give up rim shots, although they’re great rim protectors. Again, I thought we played pretty good, pretty decent, okay, whatever word you want to say… survived… the first 16 minutes. And then after that… I mean, I’ve coached a long time and I don’t remember a home game like this ever. Since I’ve been coaching, whether it’s the minor leagues or whatever, we had people who paid good money to the game, we had people that drove far… it’s basically a filled-up building.”

On Arkansas’ pattern of not closing out the back quarter of a half

“Understanding the importance. It’s been addressed not a little, but a lot. It’s winning. Are you used to winning? Is winning a part of your DNA? Do you understand getting on the floor for a loose ball in the last two minutes of a half, become really important. They… they meaning Auburn… they’ve got a lot of guys with experience and have won a lot of games. I thought that their guys like Jaylin Williams played really well. I thought Johni Broome, I thought we did a great job on him in the first half and then I thought in the second half he was just totally dominant. It looked like we didn’t want any part of guarding him whatsoever. Some of the plus-minuses on our team, I’ve never seen some of those like that in the minutes guys played. As a competitor, disappointed. I really don’t know what else to say other than the fact… practice competitive nature and the games become two different things.”

Are you confident things can be fixed?

“How would I know? All I know is that I’ve gotta try to talk about them and address them.”

On Auburn being dominant in the paint

“I just didn’t think… I mean, paint points come in two ways: They come off dribble-drives and they come off post-ups. They hurt us in both. I’ll go all the way back to Year 1 here. I mean that group understood that we had to guard the three and we go to LSU and lose 28-1 on the glass or whatever and we still give ourselves a chance to win because they understood. This group does not understand what identity – on either side of the ball. So we have to just try to figure it out and keep talking about it. Whether it gets solved or not, I don’t know.”

On Saturday being the most lopsided loss in Bud Walton

“Ever? Or during my tenure?”

No, ever

“Yeah, that’s a pretty bold statement. And it’s factual. I don’t know what it means to that locker room. I know what it means to me. I know the history of this program. I have incredible respect for everybody that’s coached here, everybody that’s played here. That’s a wild statement.”

On the impact of Auburn’s Chad Baker-Mazara

“Was it addressed that on the right wing they run a pick-and-roll for him to get to the middle and shoot his pull-up jump shot? Yeah, it was addressed about a hundred times. But he still got to his sweet spot and I thought he played really hard, I thought he played really aggressive.”

Is the struggle of Arkansas’ offense a result of Arkansas’ struggling defense?

“Yeah, I certainly think defensively if you can create some offense, that makes it a little bit better on the other of the ball. We were bad on both sides of the ball. I’m assuming the 165 passes is an all-time low since I’ve been here too.”

How deflating is it that Auburn’s bench could be so impactful?

“Their bench is impactful every night. So no, we never talked about Broome having zero points and what’re we going to do if he has… I mean, just follow the gameplan and follow the blueprint of what we did in the first half. And maybe the results would’ve been different in the second half.”

On what he sees in Arkansas’ struggling transition defense

“We’ve struggled everywhere defensively. We’ve struggled on pick-and-rolls, your shot selection has to do with your transition defense. I mean, when you lose by 30, I could go all the way around the room and each of you could pick a different area and you would all be right. We stunk in all areas. I don’t know… I mean, transition defense, what about Johni Broome in the second half, I mean, I can go on and on. Yeah, we stunk. And we need to get a lot better to even survive in this league. We’ve gotta get a lot better. We’ve gotta get a lot more competitive. So with that, I will say, you all saw how poorly we played and there’s a million things we could discuss, but we stunk in all those areas.”

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