Auburn VS Yale Prediction

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Edited March 20 by aubiefifty

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247sports.com

Jason Caldwells Monday morning quarterback column

Jason Caldwell

4–5 minutes

Emphatic week in Nashville

This is an Auburn basketball team that I still believe has a bunch of good players, but no bona fide NBA player. Now, there may be someone step into the role in the coming years and prove me wrong, but this is a group that has brought a working mentality to the court and has continued to improve each and every week on the court.

I listened to Dylan Cardwell after Sunday’s game talk about being willing to work behind Johni Broome and learn to take on that role. He admitted last season was tough for him, but this year we have seen him really accept that position and I think it has spoken volumes to his teammates about what’s important. Cardwell has put the team first and so have the rest of his teammates.

That showed up all week in Nashville with Chris Moore, Tre Donaldson, Chaney Johnson and others all making their share of important plays. Freshman point guard Aden Holloway has become a steady point guard that is putting the team first as well.

There’s a whole lot to like about this Auburn basketball team that will now hang another banner for winning an SEC Tournament title. Pretty remarkable run under Bruce Pearl for the Tigers. Enjoy it and never take it for granted.

Making some sense of the NCAA Tournament

I can’t do it, and it’s not just about the seedings and matchups. I just absolutely despise what they’ve done to the best tournament in the world .There’s no way that Auburn should be playing in the East and have its first two games in Spokane, Washington. What’s the matter with having the East Regions in the East, the West in the West, etc.? It worked and worked well for a long, long time until someone decided they wanted to try to pod teams up. It has made for a terrible setup and impossible to understand who is in what region. 

As for the seeding, there’s always room to argue but what I have been shown once again is that it’s not about the entire season. It’s about the entire season until the time the committee shuts the doors and begins to work through the bracket. There’s no way what happened in Nashville had any impact on the seeding process for Auburn or anyone else involved. The Tigers absolutely dominated the tournament for what I think is the equal of the Big 12 as the best league in the country and got nothing for it. 

UConn is the one that should be really unhappy about the draw it got. The Huskies were given the overall No. 1 seed and they do get to go through Boston, but they also got six of the Top 18 teams as ranked by the selection committee. Auburn finished 15th, one spot ahead of Alabama but got a considerably tougher draw. Both were behind Kansas, who finished the season 22-10 and 10-8 in the Big 12.

Tough starts on the diamond

The Southeastern Conference is unforgiving in every sport, but there’s nothing like baseball and softball, in my opinion. Not only are there no off days, but every week you have to be at the top of your game to survive. Throw in the most difficult schedule in the country and there’s just no room for error. That’s what Auburn baseball found out over the weekend in Nashville as the Tigers were swept by Vanderbilt to open SEC play on a weekend when the pitching just wasn’t good enough. I think this team has the arms to do just fine this season, but they’ve got to get more out of the starting group if that’s to happen. Against the Commodores, Auburn got just 10.2 innings out of its three starting pitchers. You don’t need 27 a weekend, but you’ve got to have more than that if you want to compete against the upcoming schedule of No. 1 Arkansas, at No. 7 Texas A&M and No. 8 Tennessee at home over the next three weeks. 

The same is true of softball, but in a different way. Maddie Penta is going to give the Tigers a chance to win almost every time she’s in the circle, but they’ve got to find a way to score a few more runs. Starting the season 2-4 in league play isn’t the end of the world, but there’s a tough road ahead beginning with a trip to Texas A&M this weekend to face the 25-3 Aggies

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auburnwire.usatoday.com

 

Game time, broadcast info released for Auburn's NCAA Tournament first round game

Taylor Jones

~2 minutes

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The NCAA Tournament begins Friday and Auburn fans will be spending plenty of airline miles to watch their favorite team play in the round of 64 in Spokane, Washington.

For those who choose to stay close to home to watch the Tigers play, a tipoff time has been scheduled and broadcast duties have been assigned for their opening-round game. No. 4 seed Auburn will battle No. 13 seed Yale on Friday at 3:15 p.m. CT, and the game will be broadcast live on TNT with Lisa Byington, Steve Smith, Robbie Hummel, and Lauren Shehadi on the call. MAX and Paramount Plus will also stream the NCAA Tournament.

Auburn enters the NCAA Tournament winners of the SEC Tournament, taking down Florida on Sunday, 86-67 in Nashville, Tennessee. The Tigers finished the regular season as the fourth-place team in the SEC behind Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama. As for Yale, they earned the Ivy League’s automatic qualifying bid after beating Brown in the conference tournament, 62-61. The Bulldogs finished third in the Ivy League regular season standings.

The NCAA Tournament begins Tuesday with First Four games, and the round of 64 will tip off on Thursday.

Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on  X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Taylor on Twitter @TaylorJones__

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saturdaydownsouth.com

Auburn vs. Yale: 3 things to know for Auburn’s NCAA Tournament opponent

Paul Harvey | 2 days ago

4–5 minutes

Auburn is heading back to the NCAA Tournament, punching its 3rd straight trip to the Big Dance as the winners of the SEC Tournament.

The Tigers head to the East Region as the 4-seed in a deep group. Should Auburn advance, the Tigers will likely have to contend with No. 1 overall seed UConn in a region that also includes 2-seed Iowa State and 3-seed Illinois.

The East is particularly deep and provides a tough road to the Final Four. In spite of that tough path, the Tigers have the second-best odds to win the region with ESPN Bet listing Auburn at +300 to reach the Final Four. UConn leads those odds with Iowa State (+320) and Illinois (+750) trailing Auburn.

To start things off, Auburn will get Yale out of the Ivy League in a Friday evening matchup. That should put the Tigers on high alert with the Bulldogs previously notching an NCAA Tournament win as a 12-seed.

Here are 3 things to know about Yale’s matchup with Auburn:

Dramatic entrance to March Madness

Yale has already experienced its share of March Madness with the Bulldogs needing some drama to win the Ivy League. Facing the early Cinderella story of the month, Yale was trailing sub-.500 Brown in the final minute of the championship game.

Then, the Bulldogs produced a furious rally but still trailed 61-60 with less than 10 second to play. Yale ran an inbounds play and took things down to the buzzer before hitting a game winner at the buzzer.

Yale finished the game on an 8-1 run in the final 22 seconds of action to punch its ticket. That’s the kind of finish that gives any team confidence for the high stakes action of March Madness.

.@YaleMBasketball WITH THE GAME-WINNER AT THE BUZZER TO WIN THE IVY LEAGUE TOURNAMENT ?

Yale outscored Brown 8-1 in the final 22 seconds to win it by 1.

?: @espn pic.twitter.com/XZZU1s9Emu

— CBS Sports College Basketball ? (@CBSSportsCBB) March 17, 2024

Legitimate big man to account for

Get to know the name Danny Wolf ahead of tip-off.

While a number of mid-major teams live on elite guard play, Wolf is a legitimate 7-footer who led the Bulldogs in scoring this season.

Wolf is not just a back-to-the-basket big man. He led Yale with 14.3 points per game this season and averaged 9.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1 steal and 1.4 blocks.

He’s also not afraid to step away from the paint and shoot the deep ball, averaging 2.5 attempts per game from 3-point range. Wolf shot 34% from deep this season and is a catalyst for the Bulldogs.

It should be a fun big man matchup in the first round with Auburn’s Johni Broome averaging 2.3 blocks this season and also shooting 35% from 3-point range.

RELATED: Ready to fill out your bracket? Be sure to track all the latest odds and trends ahead of time with SDS’s host of resources for college basketball sports bettors.

Deep group of scorers for the Bulldogs

Wolf is the catalyst for Yale, but the Bulldogs have a deep group of scorers with 5 players that average 10+ points per game. And, true to Ivy League fashion, a couple of sharpshooters round out the starting 5.

John Poulakidas, a junior guard at 6-foot-5, is the team’s 2nd-leading scorer with 13.1 points. He also averagings 2.4 made 3-pointers per game and shoots 39% from 3-point range. August Mahoney is the 5th-leading scorer at 10.3 points per game but leads the Bulldogs while shooting 46% from deep.

Other players to account for are Matt Knowling (11.8 points) and Bez Mbeng (11.3 points). Neither of those players is a big threat from deep, but they combine to average 6.8 assists per game, and Mbeng is a legitimate defender with 1.8 steals per game.

4 of Yale’s 5 leading scorers are also juniors and seniors, so don’t expect any sort of youthful jitters from the Bulldogs. Auburn will need to be on the top of its game and come out focused to avoid any slip up to begin the tournament.

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247sports.com

How newly crowned SEC champs became Pearls tightestknit Auburn team

Nathan King

5–6 minutes

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Bruce Pearl has now won four SEC titles at Auburn. He’s the first coach in program history to win multiple SEC Tournament championships, after the Tigers hammered Florida 86-67 on Sunday to hoist the trophy in Nashville. Greatness is no longer a novelty for Auburn basketball under the 10th-year coach’s watch.

But this particular group moves the needle for Pearl in a different way.

“I’ve never coached a team that got along better than these guys,” he said during the SEC championship trophy presentation. 

As Pearl and his players have harped on all season, that chemistry is the secret sauce to playing a true, two-deep rotation successfully as a high-level basketball program. Pearl said he’s never been part of a group with so much unselfishness and joy for the success of one another.

Where and when did that bond take off for this Auburn team? Several Auburn players gave the same answer: New York City, all the way back in November. 

Senior center Dylan Cardwell said there was a bit of “animosity” in the locker room early in the season, as the Tigers sorted through the complexities of their rotation. On a team that had shown signs of greatness to the coaching staff in the offseason, those kinds of issues — small as they were — weren’t going to fly.

Seventh-year assistant coach Ira Bowman called the team out on what he was observing before Auburn made the trip to play in the Legends Classic in Brooklyn: “Why are we not happy for another man’s success?” 

At the time, Cardwell said, the coaching staff pointed to the selfless relationship between the two primary rotation players at the wing position — senior Chris Moore and first-year transfer Chad Baker-Mazara — and how much they supported one another, despite competing for minutes every day.

“It humbled us,” Cardwell said. 

On their first night in the city, the entire team went out to Times Square together. Baker-Mazara said there wasn’t anything specific they did — just wandering around, eating, taking pictures and enjoying the company. But something just “clicked” that night, Baker-Mazara said. 

That’s when they realized their bond and brotherhood this season could be truly special.

“When everyone decided that night to go out as a team and everybody kick it together, that was a big stepping stone in our relationship as a team,” Moore said. 

Fifth-year senior forward Jaylin Williams — who now adds another championship ring to his resume of the winningest player in program history — has been part of a few excellent teams. Still, none compare in terms of their bond to this year’s group — and they’ve gotten so close that the self-proclaimed old man of the team even gets out of the house to hang out with them.

“Previous years, I’d never go chill with anybody,” Williams said. “I’d be in my room playing Call of Duty. But every day, I just want to hang out with my brothers.”

Cardwell prides himself on a leadership role but said he’s never really had to step in and make sure there were no cliques on the team. That came naturally.

“It's a real-deal, genuine brotherhood,” Cardwell said. “I’ve never seen a team be this close from top to bottom.”

Several players made callbacks to what they’ve talked about all season: those summer breakfasts, when the chemistry began to spark as the Tigers “broke bread as a family” all the way back in the June grind of workout season.

Auburn’s run to an SEC Tournament title in Nashville was, of course, about much more than their off-the-court relationships. The Tigers have proven themselves to be a tremendous basketball team with their mixture of elite defense, dynamic play-making and, of course, that signature depth.

But as they said under Bridgestone Arena on Sunday afternoon — pieces of the net tied to their hats and confetti in their shoes — it’s a lot easier to grind every day and push to the limit when they’re doing it with a truly close group of friends.

It’s that chemistry that makes the Tigers believe without hesitation — as they'll look to continue their March run in Spokane, Washington, this week — that they are completely capable of winning a national championship.

“Yes, I believe we can — and it’s not even because of what we do on the court,” Williams said. “It’s because we stick together and our bond. We can say anything to each other and we treat it like brothers and respect it.

“... Us being together is going to take us a long way.”

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