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SAN ANTONIO — As Florida stormed back to erase Auburn basketball's eight-point halftime lead — and eventually beat the Tigers 79-73 — in Saturday's Final Four contest at the Alamodome, the Tigers' head coach saw a tired bunch.
Following the defeat, Bruce Pearl said fatigue played a factor in the result, and that was by way or depth, or lack thereof.
"We got down to seven guys," Pearl said. "That's not enough. We just did not have enough help off the bench. I think, to take a little heat off of Johni (Broome), we scored great in the first half with our two-point baskets. We went through him, and he did great. I don't know whether we got away from it a little bit, but we only had a handful of two-point baskets in the second half."
Both Broome and Chad Baker-Mazara were playing through injuries, with the former reportedly facing both an elbow and ankle injury. Before the game, CBS' Tracy Wolfson reported that Baker-Mazara, who played with a brace on his left hand, had torn a ligament in his thumb.
Auburn's rotation, which usual runs between 10 and 12 players deep, only saw seven on the floor against the Gators. That's been the case for much of the postseason.
In both the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, Pearl played only eight. In the Rounds of 32 and 64, only seven players logged more than four minutes in each game.
"As a result, we weren't able to maintain control of the game" against UF, Pearl said.
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at [email protected] or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn basketball: Why Tigers were fatigued vs. Florida in Final Four
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Following the defeat, Bruce Pearl said fatigue played a factor in the result, and that was by way or depth, or lack thereof.
"We got down to seven guys," Pearl said. "That's not enough. We just did not have enough help off the bench. I think, to take a little heat off of Johni (Broome), we scored great in the first half with our two-point baskets. We went through him, and he did great. I don't know whether we got away from it a little bit, but we only had a handful of two-point baskets in the second half."
Both Broome and Chad Baker-Mazara were playing through injuries, with the former reportedly facing both an elbow and ankle injury. Before the game, CBS' Tracy Wolfson reported that Baker-Mazara, who played with a brace on his left hand, had torn a ligament in his thumb.
Auburn's rotation, which usual runs between 10 and 12 players deep, only saw seven on the floor against the Gators. That's been the case for much of the postseason.
In both the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, Pearl played only eight. In the Rounds of 32 and 64, only seven players logged more than four minutes in each game.
"As a result, we weren't able to maintain control of the game" against UF, Pearl said.
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at [email protected] or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn basketball: Why Tigers were fatigued vs. Florida in Final Four
Continue reading...
