It got here right down to the wire, however the fourth-seeded Auburn Tigers simply couldn’t get the job carried out in opposition to the Thirteenth-seeded Yale Bulldogs Friday night time.
Whereas Auburn led by 10 factors with simply lower than 7:30 to play, the Tigers’ capturing efforts fell chilly — from the sphere and from the free-throw line, leading to a 78-76 Auburn loss and an early exit from the NCAA Match.
Right here’s every part Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl mentioned following the loss.
Opening assertion: I’d prefer to congratulate Yale on an amazing victory. We revered our opponent, we performed them a few years in the past they usually performed us powerful. We knew precisely what we have been getting ourselves into. We knew we’d should play effectively to win and we didn’t deal with the ball, we turned it over an excessive amount of. Nevertheless it was an amazing sport. Clearly they made huge photographs. , John (Poulakidas) bought sizzling and we simply couldn’t guard him. He made some huge performs, some huge buckets and that’s what a man’s gotta do on the finish of issues. We have been in foul bother from the very starting. Clearly the choice to flagrant 2 Chad Baker(-Mazara), that’s a fairly powerful name. He had gotten hit about 5 seconds earlier, bought twisted up, bought just a little little bit of an elbow, they didn’t name it, perhaps no one noticed it. About 5 seconds later, Chad hit him. It was inappropriate. Clearly a flagrant 1, however the truth that it was elevated to a flagrant 2 is a choice that the official needed to make. Nevertheless it clearly had an incredible affect on the result. Chad is one in all our greatest gamers, one in all our absolute best playmakers and was an enormous a part of our gameplan. And so to lose him in that state of affairs was actually disruptive to our staff on each ends of the ground.
On what the season has meant to him as a complete: It’s powerful to mirror on a season if you undergo some of the disappointing losses in your profession. I’ve been within the 12 spot, we’ve had these nice wins. That is the most important upset in an NCAA Match that I believe I’ve skilled. I’m glad we misplaced to a very good staff in Yale, nice youngsters, nice coaches. As a Jewish-American coach, I’m actually happy with Danny Wolf as probably the greatest Jewish basketball gamers within the nation. Some persons are afraid to level that out or get uncomfortable with it, I’m simply not. And so I’m happy with him. However Auburn had a historic yr. We have been picked in the course of the league, we have been one sport out of first within the common season, we bought sizzling late. The final sport we misplaced, I believe, was at Tennessee three weeks in the past? 4 weeks in the past? I imply, this staff has carried out so many nice issues and so I’m very happy with them. And like these guys mentioned, these guys bought alongside actually, very well collectively. They usually made historical past. That is the fourth totally different staff at Auburn that has received a championship in seven years — two common seasons, two tournaments. They represented Auburn very well.
How did dropping Chad Baker-Mazara change the way in which Auburn matched up with Yale?: It was big. They’ve an amazing defensive guard in Bez (Mbeng). Bez is a good defensive guard. The opposite guards are higher offensively than they’re defensively. Denver Jones had a very good offensive sport, however we would have liked that different guard on the market offensively. Denver was just a little underneath the climate, he needed to play via that and so he ended up enjoying extra minutes underneath the climate. And Chris Moore to play extra minutes and KD needed to play extra minutes. And so we simply weren’t as deep or as contemporary. I believe they took a shot at Chad, they hit him and he retaliated. You may’t retaliate, however they hit him first.
On if he was given a proof as to why Baker-Mazara’s foul was elevated from a flagrant 1 to a flagrant 2: I believe, maybe a few phrases, the truth that it was critical, perhaps. Or intentional. , Chad lined him up and retaliated, so by guide or if that’s the wording they use, it was a flagrant 2. Nevertheless it had a huge effect on the sport. And I believe if he known as it a flagrant 1… you realize, it was a flagrant 1. He deliberately, it was extreme, it was… What number of flagrant 2s are there in video games versus flagrant 1s? That’d be a very good dialogue. Let’s simply say of all of the flagrants, in my expertise, 90%, perhaps, are 1s, 10% (2s). Robust to get right here in any case yr lengthy, I don’t even know if we had a flagrant 2 all yr lengthy.
On Johni Broome showing injured on the finish of the sport: I don’t know. I don’t know. He bought twisted up there fairly good there, didn’t he? However Johni had an amazing yr. He carried this staff, significantly the offensive finish and improved tremendously defensively. We depend on him an amazing deal. He’s probably the greatest facilities in all of faculty basketball as an All-American.
On Auburn’s offensive struggles within the last 10 minutes: We turned it over and I believe that was in all probability the most important takeaway. We didn’t get a ton of simple ones, we didn’t kinda run with out the ball. We put the ball in Chad’s fingers so much late to make performs. And so we actually, offensively, misplaced an enormous breakdown man for us. I’d say it’s our turnovers. Yale performed strong defensively. (August) Mohoney was 9-for-11 from the foul line and so he was on the bottom so much. So I’m going to be troubled to see what these… we simply fouled them an excessive amount of.
When did Pearl notice Yale wasn’t going to again down?: We didn’t count on them to go away ever, ever. Pay attention, this isn’t… It’s humorous, I heard Jay Bilas say some issues immediately. Give Yale credit score for making these performs. This has nothing to do with us not taking them critically. Nothing. They outplayed us in lots of classes, they made photographs, they guarded us, they know how you can fall, you realize, they know how you can get the whistle to blow. And the whistle blowed so much. They went to the road 31 occasions. That’s so much.
On what he informed Chad Baker-Mazara after the ejection: All of us should be accountable for issues. We acknowledge that. I visited with him at half time just a little bit and he felt badly about it and wished he had a do-over. However you don’t punish… quite a lot of points of the sport. Give Yale credit score. They performed nice, performed nice protection, we turned the ball over an excessive amount of. That’s not disguising the truth that we we missed one in all our prime gamers — he’s one in all our prime two or three gamers.
Do you assume Auburn’s lack of expertise in shut video games performed a job within the outcome?: I don’t know. We missed a few free throws however we bought a few offensive rebounds in a free throw set that performed into our fingers, bought us to the place we had an opportunity to win the sport based mostly on our, let’s say, offensive-set free-throw execution. So it’ll be attention-grabbing to see these final two photographs with Johni on the bottom and all of the contact that was there.
What are the positives you are taking from this season?: I believe that this was a staff that our followers appreciated as a lot as any I’ve had in 10 years at Auburn. Like I’d say the 2019 Last 4 staff, that was a particular staff, had a particular run and positively one of many nice groups we’ve ever had and perhaps the very best staff we’ve ever had at Auburn. I believe that Walker Kessler and Jabari Smith’s yr, the place we have been No. 1 within the nation for about 4 weeks and received the common season, didn’t end nice that yr however that was a staff I believe our followers actually loved. Our followers love this staff. They love their vitality, they love their ardour, they love their emotion, they love that they beat each staff they have been alleged to beat aside from tonight.