Auburn won the SEC Tournament on Sunday with an 86-67 victory over the Florida Gators. The victory earned the Tigers their first convention tournament name since 2019 and secured them a fourth-place finish in the NCAA Tournament.
Wait. Four seeds? This is probably a printing error. Auburn was the No. 3 seed in Joe Lunardi’s screening Sunday morning. . . it then gained an SEC name with dominant functionality opposed to Florida. As the No. 4 seed, the Tigers can face either San Diego State or UAB in the second round, potentially UConn in the Sweet 16, and then Big 12 champion Iowa State or Big Ten champion Illinois in the Elite Eight.
The Huskies took the top overall position in this area and in the corner of the UConn group, four of the 6 champions of the primary convention tournament.
Still, Auburn will be an option.
The Tigers started as 11. 5-point favorites against Yale in the first round (according to FanDuel). The number fluctuated in the hours after the media revelation, but Auburn had between 1,500 and 1,800 to win the national championship on most online sports betting apps.
During his SEC career, Auburn’s intensity shone through. In the NCAA Tournament, that intensity can be huge.
In Sunday’s win over Florida, 10 players were in the box for at least 15 minutes. Ten players played at least 10 minutes in Saturday’s 73-66 win over Mississippi State. And 10 players played at least 13 minutes in Friday’s quarterfinal win over South Carolina. .
Auburn has a solid starting unit. Auburn also has a bench unit that coach Bruce Pearl can throw on the fly without jeopardizing his game plan or a win. Auburn may not play 3 games in 3 days, but when things go fast and furious in the early rounds of the NCAA tournament, being able to sink deep into a bench is a huge advantage.
“You can’t ask kids to play as hard as we do and play with them,” Pearl said after Sunday’s win. “We communicate it in recruitment. Of course, there are still difficult situations to overcome. There are difficult situations during the day to know “give me the ball”. . . . It’s a give-and-take and it’s open. They perceive where they are, they perceive why they are there. They perceive what their role is.
On Sunday, Auburn took an 8-point lead over Florida. The Gators scored 14 points in the first 3 minutes of the second half to cut the lead to 1. But Auburn regrouped and extended its lead to 11 in the next four minutes thanks to it. you to Tre. Donaldson’s serene shot.
Auburn never looked back. Playing its fourth game in as many days, Florida is running out of gas.
“I feel like in that moment, when they were given their chance, new guys came in,” guard Chad Baker-Mazara said. “I feel like the guys who came in have reached a whole new level. We executed, he stayed calm, he stayed composed.
Auburn made a mini-run later in the game, with Johni Broome and Dylan Cardwell driving a 12-2 run that extended the lead to 21 points.
“You’ve heard guys communicate about their willingness to percentage. A lot of guys need to play 35, they need all the shots. That’s wonderful. That’s wonderful. But that doesn’t translate into a win and it doesn’t translate into a win. “In a wonderful locker room,” Pearl said. I guess it’s very much the sum of our parts. “
Pearl talked about thanking Denver Jones for his patience, how Donaldson and Aden Holloway would likely need to play more than 30 minutes a night and how Baker-Mazara could start but is fit to come off the bench. This Tigers team almost turns out to be glad to be, first and foremost, a championship team.
“Every game is going to be the same. That’s why this team is so good, because we can adapt,” Broome said. “If everyone needs to shoot, we can do it. If your guys need to do things right, a little bit harder, play more physically, we can do that too.
Baker-Mazar added, “I feel like when you have a 10-man (11) team, we all bring other kinds of things to the table. . . We dictate the game for us. We just get to the scene, pay attention. “to the coaches and execute their plan.
The team leader plays 24. 8 minutes per game. Ten players have averaged at least 13. 6 minutes per game throughout the season. Nine players have seen the box in the 33 games. The kind of intensity that Pearl has built is rare and detrimental to the tournament.
This will allow one of basketball’s defenses to remain relentless for a full 40 minutes. This will make Auburn one of the least pleasant teams to plan for.
The Tigers are now 7-1 in fair games played this season. Of his 26 wins, 25 of them recorded double-digit margins. They have an SEC championship trophy upon returning to campus, top-10 scores in terms of tight offense and defense. power (according to KenPom) and great chances of advancing to the show’s first Final Four since the 2018-19 season.
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