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It is safe to say that Auburn's Bruce Pearl is ecstatic that his team is heading to the Final Four.
The No. 1 seed Auburn Tigers beat No. 2 Michigan State on Sunday, 70-64, to claim the South Region title and to secure the last slot in the Final Four round of the NCAA Tournament that begins next weekend. With the win, the SEC is guaranteed to have one team in the NCAA Tournament final as the Tigers draw Florida in the Final Four next Saturday.
Auburn earned the win by winning the field, outshooting Michigan State, 43% to 34%. Auburn's star forward, Johni Broome, also had an MVP caliber game by scoring 25 points and securing 14 rebounds. He also exited the game with about 10 minutes remaining in the game due to an apparent elbow injury, but later returned to help his team close out the game.
Following the game, Pearl spoke to the media about an array of topics including the Tigers' special win, Johni Broome's injury status, and the giant steps the SEC has taken in becoming a major player in the world of college basketball. Here is a rundown of what Pearl said after Auburn's March Madness win over Michigan State on Sunday.
"I guess the first thought is there are four teams in the country that are left, and Auburn is one of them. So we couldn't be happier. I want to congratulate Michigan State on an incredible year. We saw them in Maui, and they were good. I don't know that when we saw them in Maui, that you'd look at that team and say, hey, they're going to go 17-3 in the Big Ten, and they did. The Big Ten was good, and I thought Tom and I talked before the games, our teams kind of mirrored each other in many ways, the way we defended, how hard we played, the way we try to dominate the backboards, so on and so forth. But I felt going in that we were better. I felt like I had better players. That's not a criticism at all. I told our guys right now, we haven't beaten a team yet that I thought was better than us. That's why we're the overall Number 1 seed. We're going to the Final Four with our four 1 seeds. The four teams that advanced, I think they're the four best teams in the country. That doesn't obviously always happen. Johni Broome stepped up again. Just keep doubting him, and keep thinking that he's not going to be able to get to another gear. One of the reasons why I'm on him and my son Steven's on him pretty good is because I know what he's capable of, I know what he's capable of. You talk about delivering again at the biggest moments. Last thing is just grateful for our fans and our families because Auburn looked -- we are a football school. We are. Don't ever forget that. We're a football school. We are. But we're also an everything school. We're an everything school. Our fans represented really well here in Atlanta."
"When Johni went out, I immediately thought about Chaney and Dylan, and neither of them went into foul trouble. I knew that we were going to be fine there. I might have timeouts to be able to give them the time they need. If Johni had not come out of the locker room, I probably would've gotten a timeout. It was not going to affect us defensively. Chaney and Dylan can obviously do what needs to be done on the defensive end and rebounding. My guess is, when Johni was out, we hung in there. We made it difficult for Michigan State to score."
"I didn't get any diagnosis. When Johni came out of the locker room, I hadn't talked to the doctor, but I just asked him, are you good to go? He said, I am. I said, well, get your a** in there. Dylan was ready to come out. Dylan was kind of calling the bench. If Johni had not come out, I probably would have just called a timeout. I think we won't really know until tomorrow and see what that was. Whether it's a slight hyperextension or whatever it was, obviously the doctors were able to examine it and determine that there was no damage. I bet you it will be pretty sore tomorrow, though."
"I think that both are important. There's such a foundation in this team with Dylan Cardwell or Chris Moore, guys that have been there four and five years. Johni has been there three years. I think that one of the things that they talked about yesterday was I told these guys, look, I'm going to bring in good guys. So you bring in Chaney Johnson, you bring in Denver Jones, you bring in Chad Baker-Mazara, and it tells the guys that are left, he did bring in good guys and guys that were willing to make sacrifices and want to try to become a great team. We'll continue to recruit really good high school players that want to be coached and developed, and we'll continue to jump in the portal and get guys that want to be an Auburn man and play the way we play."
"If you look at my staff, you'll notice that guys have been with me a long time. Steven Pearl's been with me his whole life. Steven has been on our staff for 11 years in lots of different ways. He could have left several times for head coaching positions, but he wanted to continue to help his father, and he stayed loyal to Auburn. Together we make a great team. Chad Prewett's been with me since we got the job. Mike Burgomaster came as a graduate assistant coach after being a manager at Miami, and I was able to -- he was able to demonstrate to me his knowledge and his feel for the offensive end. So we elevated Mike, got a chance to actually be an assistant coach last year. I think Mike's been with me seven years. Ian Borders has been with me six, seven, eight years. Mike Jeffrey started as a manager. He's now my Director of Basketball Operation, probably been with me eight or nine years. You don't see that continuity in staffs -- Ira Bowman came from Penn. A guy from Jersey, probably come out to Auburn for a few years, get a couple good players. He hasn't left. He stayed here, raised his family here. Auburn is a special place. It is a very, very -- it is, it's a special place. I liked every place I've lived. I've never liked any place more than I've liked Auburn. That's how the program is where it's at because of this staff. I did not do it. And the support that I get from John Cohen, John has built the finest athletic staff since I've been there. Jay Jacobs hired me, and without Jay Jacobs, I would not be at Auburn, and Jay is one of my dear, dear friends. John has put together an absolutely -- our marketing guys are incredible. Our business guys are incredible. The academic integrity. And John Cohen was a great baseball coach who understands what it takes. With his leadership -- I think the other thing too is the trust that Dr. Roberts has in John Cohen. John Cohen runs our athletic program, period. Dr. Roberts is our president, and he is smart enough to let the experts do what they do. John has been great support to me and great advice and great counsel. We've absolutely done this together."
"How the SEC does really matters to me. It genuinely matters to me. It starts with Mike Slive, who was a great, great leader in the SEC, and unfortunately we lost him way, way too soon. One of the great things that Mike Slive did was he had his -- his number one was Greg Sankey. When we made that transition to Greg, the hardest thing Greg had to do was replace himself. Our league office is really, really strong and got great, great leadership and really smart people. And obviously put this thing together. Basketball wasn't holding up its end. It was Kentucky. It was a Billy Donovan coached Florida team, and then every now and then, maybe Arkansas would have a run or Tennessee would have a run, whatever, whatever. There are now 16 basketball programs in the SEC that are all committed to being competitive in men's basketball. The fan bases -- we did not play on the road this year, except maybe once, where the game wasn't a sellout. The league has done a great job, and unfortunately, there will only be one SEC team playing for the National Championship on Monday."
"I think, if you're watching that game and you're at home and you're playing against Michigan State, you're playing against Tom Izzo and to watch our guys execute offensively and get great looks and go this is -- and one of the things that I stressed to our guys, we benefited greatly by not valuing possessions against Michigan in the first half. We were sloppy. We were careless. Fortunately, we got it going in the second half. But we knew in this particular game that was not going to be an option. We got to our spot. We got our real estate. To only have two turnovers against a Michigan State defense is obviously really good. I just think our guys, they've trusted us with a game plan. And one of the things that we just talked about, if we do these things offensively and then if we do these things defensively, we're going to win the game, and they did, and we did."
This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: Auburn's Bruce Pearl talks Elite Eight win over Michigan State
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The No. 1 seed Auburn Tigers beat No. 2 Michigan State on Sunday, 70-64, to claim the South Region title and to secure the last slot in the Final Four round of the NCAA Tournament that begins next weekend. With the win, the SEC is guaranteed to have one team in the NCAA Tournament final as the Tigers draw Florida in the Final Four next Saturday.
Auburn earned the win by winning the field, outshooting Michigan State, 43% to 34%. Auburn's star forward, Johni Broome, also had an MVP caliber game by scoring 25 points and securing 14 rebounds. He also exited the game with about 10 minutes remaining in the game due to an apparent elbow injury, but later returned to help his team close out the game.
Following the game, Pearl spoke to the media about an array of topics including the Tigers' special win, Johni Broome's injury status, and the giant steps the SEC has taken in becoming a major player in the world of college basketball. Here is a rundown of what Pearl said after Auburn's March Madness win over Michigan State on Sunday.
Opening statement
"I guess the first thought is there are four teams in the country that are left, and Auburn is one of them. So we couldn't be happier. I want to congratulate Michigan State on an incredible year. We saw them in Maui, and they were good. I don't know that when we saw them in Maui, that you'd look at that team and say, hey, they're going to go 17-3 in the Big Ten, and they did. The Big Ten was good, and I thought Tom and I talked before the games, our teams kind of mirrored each other in many ways, the way we defended, how hard we played, the way we try to dominate the backboards, so on and so forth. But I felt going in that we were better. I felt like I had better players. That's not a criticism at all. I told our guys right now, we haven't beaten a team yet that I thought was better than us. That's why we're the overall Number 1 seed. We're going to the Final Four with our four 1 seeds. The four teams that advanced, I think they're the four best teams in the country. That doesn't obviously always happen. Johni Broome stepped up again. Just keep doubting him, and keep thinking that he's not going to be able to get to another gear. One of the reasons why I'm on him and my son Steven's on him pretty good is because I know what he's capable of, I know what he's capable of. You talk about delivering again at the biggest moments. Last thing is just grateful for our fans and our families because Auburn looked -- we are a football school. We are. Don't ever forget that. We're a football school. We are. But we're also an everything school. We're an everything school. Our fans represented really well here in Atlanta."
How team responded after Johni Broome's injury
"When Johni went out, I immediately thought about Chaney and Dylan, and neither of them went into foul trouble. I knew that we were going to be fine there. I might have timeouts to be able to give them the time they need. If Johni had not come out of the locker room, I probably would've gotten a timeout. It was not going to affect us defensively. Chaney and Dylan can obviously do what needs to be done on the defensive end and rebounding. My guess is, when Johni was out, we hung in there. We made it difficult for Michigan State to score."
An update on Johni Broome's injury diagnosis
"I didn't get any diagnosis. When Johni came out of the locker room, I hadn't talked to the doctor, but I just asked him, are you good to go? He said, I am. I said, well, get your a** in there. Dylan was ready to come out. Dylan was kind of calling the bench. If Johni had not come out, I probably would have just called a timeout. I think we won't really know until tomorrow and see what that was. Whether it's a slight hyperextension or whatever it was, obviously the doctors were able to examine it and determine that there was no damage. I bet you it will be pretty sore tomorrow, though."
Mixing transfer portal players with high school athletes
"I think that both are important. There's such a foundation in this team with Dylan Cardwell or Chris Moore, guys that have been there four and five years. Johni has been there three years. I think that one of the things that they talked about yesterday was I told these guys, look, I'm going to bring in good guys. So you bring in Chaney Johnson, you bring in Denver Jones, you bring in Chad Baker-Mazara, and it tells the guys that are left, he did bring in good guys and guys that were willing to make sacrifices and want to try to become a great team. We'll continue to recruit really good high school players that want to be coached and developed, and we'll continue to jump in the portal and get guys that want to be an Auburn man and play the way we play."
The building blocks to a successful program
"If you look at my staff, you'll notice that guys have been with me a long time. Steven Pearl's been with me his whole life. Steven has been on our staff for 11 years in lots of different ways. He could have left several times for head coaching positions, but he wanted to continue to help his father, and he stayed loyal to Auburn. Together we make a great team. Chad Prewett's been with me since we got the job. Mike Burgomaster came as a graduate assistant coach after being a manager at Miami, and I was able to -- he was able to demonstrate to me his knowledge and his feel for the offensive end. So we elevated Mike, got a chance to actually be an assistant coach last year. I think Mike's been with me seven years. Ian Borders has been with me six, seven, eight years. Mike Jeffrey started as a manager. He's now my Director of Basketball Operation, probably been with me eight or nine years. You don't see that continuity in staffs -- Ira Bowman came from Penn. A guy from Jersey, probably come out to Auburn for a few years, get a couple good players. He hasn't left. He stayed here, raised his family here. Auburn is a special place. It is a very, very -- it is, it's a special place. I liked every place I've lived. I've never liked any place more than I've liked Auburn. That's how the program is where it's at because of this staff. I did not do it. And the support that I get from John Cohen, John has built the finest athletic staff since I've been there. Jay Jacobs hired me, and without Jay Jacobs, I would not be at Auburn, and Jay is one of my dear, dear friends. John has put together an absolutely -- our marketing guys are incredible. Our business guys are incredible. The academic integrity. And John Cohen was a great baseball coach who understands what it takes. With his leadership -- I think the other thing too is the trust that Dr. Roberts has in John Cohen. John Cohen runs our athletic program, period. Dr. Roberts is our president, and he is smart enough to let the experts do what they do. John has been great support to me and great advice and great counsel. We've absolutely done this together."
How the SEC has progressed in the world of college basketball
"How the SEC does really matters to me. It genuinely matters to me. It starts with Mike Slive, who was a great, great leader in the SEC, and unfortunately we lost him way, way too soon. One of the great things that Mike Slive did was he had his -- his number one was Greg Sankey. When we made that transition to Greg, the hardest thing Greg had to do was replace himself. Our league office is really, really strong and got great, great leadership and really smart people. And obviously put this thing together. Basketball wasn't holding up its end. It was Kentucky. It was a Billy Donovan coached Florida team, and then every now and then, maybe Arkansas would have a run or Tennessee would have a run, whatever, whatever. There are now 16 basketball programs in the SEC that are all committed to being competitive in men's basketball. The fan bases -- we did not play on the road this year, except maybe once, where the game wasn't a sellout. The league has done a great job, and unfortunately, there will only be one SEC team playing for the National Championship on Monday."
Keeping momentum going after 17-0 first half run
"I think, if you're watching that game and you're at home and you're playing against Michigan State, you're playing against Tom Izzo and to watch our guys execute offensively and get great looks and go this is -- and one of the things that I stressed to our guys, we benefited greatly by not valuing possessions against Michigan in the first half. We were sloppy. We were careless. Fortunately, we got it going in the second half. But we knew in this particular game that was not going to be an option. We got to our spot. We got our real estate. To only have two turnovers against a Michigan State defense is obviously really good. I just think our guys, they've trusted us with a game plan. And one of the things that we just talked about, if we do these things offensively and then if we do these things defensively, we're going to win the game, and they did, and we did."
This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: Auburn's Bruce Pearl talks Elite Eight win over Michigan State
Continue reading...
