Bruce Pearl said when Auburn got hit in the mouth a second time by Miami, it wilted in its NCAA loss. (SEC Photo)
SEC regular-season champion Auburn thought it could make a Final Four run again. Instead, the Tigers got crushed 79-61 by Miami in the second round. Auburn coach Bruce Pearl had a lot of interesting things to say after the loss as he normally does.
The Tigers gave up 30 fast-break points. Pearl was asked if fatigue might have been a factor for his team. Then in John Caliper-like fashion, he went a very different way with his long asn
“No, I don’t think fatigue was a factor. We were disrupted. We were getting outplayed. Our team hadn’t — we haven’t been outplayed like that all year, as I stop and think about our losses. Our first loss at Arkansas, we got possession to win the game in regulation. Overtime loss,” Pearl said.
“Our next loss, I think, was at Florida. We got the ball to win it in regulation. We go to Tennessee, and we’re down three with less than a minute. That’s our third loss. In the A&M game, we came back, and I don’t know what it got down to, it was like four late, something like that.
“This is the first time. This is the first time that we got it handed to us because we just didn’t know how to respond.”
Then he played the “age” card to help explain the loss.
“My best player is 18, and they have four players that are 24, and that experience showed, it really did,” Pearl said. “So one of the things we talked about after the game was what can we learn from this? What can we learn?”
Of course, Pearl’s best player, Jabari Smith, is going to be one of the top picks in the upcoming NBA Draft. Miami doesn’t have that type of talent. But at least Pearl admitted Auburn needed to learn from the loss.
I did like his honesty as he continued his long answer.
“I just thought we hadn’t been hit in the mouth like that all year. We responded, and by the end of the first half we battled back. But when they hit us in the mouth again at the start of the second half, I thought of going with a different starting lineup, and I probably should have because of how poorly we started,” Pearl said.
“I put that on me. I probably should have gone with a different lineup to start the second half because that lineup started so poorly.”
5 Responses
Not crazy about Cal or Pearl using lack of tourney experience as an out. Or even part of an out..The lights weren’t to bright for St Peter’s who weren’t on tv every week.
Me either Grant. How much experience did Saint Peter’s have?
Yea, Pearl sounded like Cal, I could not believe in the TV interview during the last game Cal, blamed it on inexperience in the tournament. Why wouldn’t you encourage the players that it’s like any other game, to go out there and play to beat the other team? I can’t say he didn’t but they sure didn’t play like they wanted to win, well 1 did for sure. If I were Oscar I would be so mad, but we know Oscar he never get mad.
What happened to Pearl and Auburn is what happened to Cal and Kentucky, they both got beaten and outplayed by a couple of teams that just wanted it more and took it to them from start to finsih. Neither coach had an answer. At least Pearl seemed engaged in the battle while his team was being out hustled in every phase of the game. The SEC is getting it handed to them in this tournament.
Auburns guards insisted on being the focal point of the offense, just like Sahvir and Ty did, and their team paid for it.