3/5/23 Articles super early edition

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Edited March 5, 2023 by aubiefifty

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													auburnwire.usatoday.com   Instant Analysis: Auburn closes regular season with win over No. 14 Tennessee Taylor Jones ~3 minutes What a way to end the regular season. After falling in close games to ranked teams many times this season, Auburn finally earned its signature win of the season on its’ final day. Buy Tigers Tickets Four Tigers reached double figures on a day where the team shot 49% from the field. Auburn also used a late run to solidify a 79-70 victory over the No. 14 Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday afternoon at Neville Arena. After trading leads throughout the second half, Auburn held Tennessee without a field goal for the final 6:13 and outscored the Volunteers 16-10 over that stretch to earn the win. Both teams made up for their poor shooting efforts in last month’s meeting in the first half as the Volunteers shot 50% while Auburn connected on 41% of their shots, which is a vast improvement from both teams’ sub-30% shooting in Knoxville. No Auburn player would score more than 10 points in the first half, but the Tigers were able to spread the wealth. Wendell Green Jr. led the team with nine points while Jaylin Williams and Johni Broome each scored six. Both teams traded blows to open the half as neither team held a lead of more than four points until the 2:25 mark in the first half when Josiah-Jordan James hit a layup to put Tennessee up, 32-27. Tennessee would lead by as many as seven points before Green made a three-pointer at the buzzer to cut the Volunteer’s lead to 34-30 at halftime. That last-second shot swayed momentum towards Auburn’s side after halftime as the Tigers were able to retake the lead. Allen Flanigan made a three-point jumper with 18:19 remaining in the second half to put his team up, 37-36, which was their first lead since the 7:59 mark in the first half. Outside of two ties, Auburn held their lead for over ten minutes before the history of the first half repeated itself. The lead changed hands four times over a three-minute span late in the second half before a three-point play executed by Green pushed Auburn to their largest lead with 1:37 to play in the game, 72-64. Green led the team in points with 24 points while Williams led in rebounds and assists with eight and seven respectively. Auburn will now await their opponent for their first game at the SEC Tournament in Nashville next week.

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Auburn likely secures NCAA bid with Tennessee win

Updated: Mar. 04, 2023, 5:26 p.m.|Published: Mar. 04, 2023, 3:15 p.m.

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Auburn knocks off No. 12 Tennessee to close regular season

Auburn all but locked up an NCAA Tournament bid with a 79-70 win over No. 12 Tennessee on Saturday afternoon.

Wendell Green led the way with 24 points and four assists to power the Tigers to the important win that should secure a trip to March Madness for Bruce Pearl’s team. Auburn had come close to landing the big win it needed, including a 90-85 overtime loss to Alabama on Wednesday, before finally breaking through against the Volunteers in front of a lively crowd at Neville Arena.

Tennessee held a four-point lead headed into halftime, but the second half was a back-and-forth affair between the two SEC schools. Down a point with less than five minutes remaining, Jaylin Williams’ jumper with 4:25 left in the game gave the Tigers’ a 64-63 lead it would never relinquish. Over the next three minutes, Auburn built the lead to 72-64 behind Williams, Allen Flanigan and Green. Flanigan finished with 16 points while Johni Broome contributed 17 points and seven rebounds in the win.

Before the win over Tennessee, ESPN’s latest bracketology had Auburn on the bubble as one of the last four teams to get a bye and as an 11 seed. Now, Auburn should move off the bubble and should move up the seed line with its Quadrant 1 win over Tennessee.

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5 takeaways from Auburn's 79-70 win over Tennessee

Nathan King

8–10 minutes

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AUBURN, Alabama — The Tigers probably just punched their ticket to the big dance.

At last able to close out a high-level opponent, Auburn relied on its experience down the stretch and took down Tennessee, 79-70 on the final day of the regular season inside Neville Arena.

With their first Quad 1 victory since early January, the Tigers' resume is now likely strong enough for an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament.

"It felt really good," senior forward Jaylin Williams said postgame. "I'm not gonna say that this is a guarantee for us to go on to the tournament. I knew it meant a lot for us to have a chance to be in the tournament. Again, Tennessee is a really good team — a physical team, one of the top in the SEC. It was a good win for us as a whole."

Here are Auburn Undercover's five takeaways, as the Tigers have now won double-digit SEC games (10-8) for the fifth time in the past six seasons under Bruce Pearl — only the second time in program history (1957-63) they have done so.

Veterans help Auburn finally close one out

On senior day, it was a pair of seniors, plus the Tigers’ veteran point guard, who helped them close out their first quality win in months.

Immediately following a pair of Williams (13 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and no turnovers) free throws with three minutes left, putting Auburn up 3 points with four minutes remaining, Allen Flanigan went strong to the basket, put in the basket plus the foul for an and-one.

Two possessions later, Wendell Green Jr. did the same, scoring overtop Santiago Vescovi, plus the foul. Both he and Flanigan hit their free throws, as Auburn had an 8-point advantage with 97 seconds remaining.

After a pair of Julian Phillips free throws for Tennessee, a held ball in the backcourt and a timeout by Pearl, Williams launched the baseline pass almost full court to Green Jr., who scored against Vescovi to put Auburn up 74-66 with 30 seconds remaining.

Flanigan (16 points) and Green Jr. combined for five more free throws the rest of the way, and Flanigan had a big steal on Tennessee's penultimate possession, too.

Green Jr. tied a season-best 24 points on 8-of-14 shooting and a 6-for-6 clip at the foul line.

"In the second half, they were switching their big men on me," Green Jr. said. "My assistant coach, (Ira Bowman), the whole year, he's told me to just run at them. They're either gonna put two hands on me and foul me, or I'm gonna get by them. That's what I started to do. The last play, when I got the and-1, I ran at them, tried to go past them and tried to finish at the rim. I was able to do that tonight."

Tennessee did not hit a field goal in the final 6:12 of the game.

"Everybody wants to focus on the final shot — we scored enough at West Virginia, Alabama, we didn't score enough at Tennessee," Pearl said. "Lot of plays to win the games, we just didn't get stops. That's it, period. Want to win? Get stops."

Against the best defense in college basketball, the veteran core of Green Jr., Flanigan, Williams and Johni Broome combined for 70 of Auburn's 79 points.

"J-Will has just been a rock," Pearl said. "Seven assists, no turnovers and eight rebounds. What an incredible senior night it was for him. Hope this is not the last time we see him. Al was really, really good and did a lot of things. Happy for Al, proud of him. Again, hope those guys get back."

Auburn scored more points in the second half Saturday (49) than it did in the entire first meeting against the Vols (43).

"Just sharing the ball," Green Jr. said. "I don't think anybody is worried about the shots that they're getting. I think we're all at that point now, because every game is win or go home. Nobody's worried about their stats and stuff like that. We're just sharing the ball and taking open shots. I think we've been taking care of the ball better, for the most part, for the last few games."

Standout stat

Another factor helping Auburn to offset the rebounding issues was the way the Tigers not only took care of the basketball, but their handsy defense, too.

Tennessee was, at one point in the second half, plus-13 in rebounding and finished with a 35-29 advantage on the glass. But Auburn’s domination of the turnover department possibly ended up being the difference in a close game.

Auburn had just six turnovers for the game, its fewest since committing just five in a home win over Georgia more than a month ago. Tennessee’s 11 turnovers don’t necessarily jump off the page as being overly detrimental, but 26.6 percent of the Tigers’ scoring on Saturday (21 points) came from the Volunteers’ giveaways.

That also led to a 15-0 advantage for Auburn in fastbreak points.

"When you play against a team that is the No. 1 defense (in the country), you might want to think about scoring before they get back," Pearl said.

Auburn rebounded better down the stretch of the game, though, grabbing 14 of the game's final 20 boards.

"They can dominate you and get great energy, and I thought our guys physically hung in there against a really physical team," Pearl said.

Both offenses better than previous meeting

One big key for both teams was improved 3-point shooting compared to the game in February, where they combined to shoot a paltry 5-of-48 from beyond the arc. They were 16-of-39 this time around, including a 4-of-6 start for the Volunteers that helped the visitors tremendously in the first half.

The big man Broome, who’s started to find his stroke from beyond the arc here toward the end of the regular season, had his best 3-point shooting game of the season, making 2-of-4. Broome (17 points, seven rebounds and four blocks) has shot 5-of-12 from deep over the final five games of the regular season.

Auburn’s 3-point shooting finished at 36 percent (8-of-22), as five different Tigers tallied a 3-point basket.

Key stretch

Perhaps it should be no surprise that, on senior day, the loudest moment possibly of the season in Neville Arena, was when Lior Berman dunked.

The walk-on found himself in a 2-on-1 fastbreak after K.D. Johnson saved the ball out of bounds to Williams, who rifled it quickly to Berman. The senior rose up with two hands for the dunk, as the student section behind him — and Auburn’s bench — completely lost their minds.

The transition score was part of an 8-2 run that put the Tigers up 6 points, 53-47, close to the midway point of the second half. The energy continued to flow when Berman got an offensive rebound on the next possession.

Vescovi a tough out for Auburn guards

After the fifth-year senior went just 2-of-7 from the floor in the first matchup, Vescovi was absolutely the Volunteers’ best offensive weapon Saturday.

Vescovi made five of his first seven triples after cashing one immediately following the under-8 timeout in the second half, giving Tennessee a 59-58 lead and halting what had been an 8-2 Auburn run. With a wide-open 2-point jumper two possessions later, Vescovi was leading an 11-2 run for Tennessee.

Vescovi finished with 21 points and made 5-of-9 triples.

But he was shackled down the stretch, which was a huge reason why Tennessee didn't make a shot in the final six minutes. Zep Jasper checked back in the game with five minutes to go, and Vescovi didn't score a point the rest of the way.

"We finally guarded at the end of the game, and Zep Jasper had a lot to do with it," Pearl said. "Zep stayed in there and did an unbelievable job on Vescovi."

Vescovi shoulder the bulk of the load for Tennessee at point guard after Zakai Zeigler tore his ACL in the Vols' midweek win over Arkansas. Likely the SEC defensive player of the year, Zeigler played well against Auburn's backcourt in the previous matchup.

"I think the one area will Tennessee will point to where they missed Zeigler the most will be on the defensive end," Pearl said. "His speed, his quickness, his ball pressure, his ability to make plays, I think that will be one thing. I thought that we did the things we needed to do against their size with some of their switching, they switched some of our ball screen stuff, we rolled Johni and Jaylin down in there, we got them some deep touches. Some of the stuff that we did made sense. We also had to anticipate how Tennessee would guard being really big and we were able to get some really good action."

8COMMENTS

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247sports.com

 

Behind Enemy Lines: Q&A with an Auburn reporter

Ben McKee

7–8 minutes

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No. 12 Tennessee heads to Auburn on Saturday afternoon to conclude the regular season. In its rematch with Bruce Pearl's Tigers, the Vols will be looking to win their third straight game and also lock up a double-bye in next week's SEC Tournament. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. ET.

GoVols247's basketball writer Ben McKee connected with Nathan King of Auburn Undercover to discuss what has gone wrong for the Tigers the second half of the season, needing to make the NCAA Tournament and much more. Here's what King had to say about the Tigers ahead of the rematch between the two teams.

BEN MCKEE: Auburn has lost five of seven since Tennessee beat the Tigers in Knoxville on Feb. 4. In total Auburn has lost eight of 11 since the last week of January. What has gone wrong for the Tigers during the second-half of the season?

NATHAN KING: For starters, Auburn had the No. 11 strength of schedule in college basketball entering the month of February — and the 10 teams in front of the Tigers were all from the Big 12.

February and March included for Auburn: two games against Alabama, two games against Tennessee, two games against Texas A&M, Kentucky on the road, Vanderbilt on the road and Missouri at home. Plenty of opportunities there for quality wins, right? Auburn won one of the above games: Mizzou.

And most of the other ones came down to the wire, and the Tigers just couldn’t finish. That’s been the story of the season for Auburn: It’s competed most of the game against the best teams on its schedule. It just hasn’t won those games. That’s included leading Alabama at home for more than 30 minutes, leading Texas A&M on the road with five minutes to play, leading Vanderbilt on the road with 70 seconds left, playing Tennessee to the wire in Knoxville and coming a possession short of overtime, and most recently, leading Alabama by 17 midway through the second half but eventually falling in overtime.

This is a good team that can’t close games. It has one of the better defenses in the country and a handful of veterans who are capable of playing at a high level every night, but don’t always do so. That’s the challenge that awaits the Tigers on Saturday: They have to find a way to get stops and hit shots in the final five minutes of the game. They’ve faded all too often down the stretch, and that’s why they haven’t had a Quad 1 win since early January.

MCKEE: As a result of Auburn's stretch of losses, what's the confidence heading into the regular season that it'll make the NCAA Tournament?

KING: The most impressive aspect of this year’s Auburn team — and why this is probably one of the better coaching jobs Bruce Pearl has done on the Plains — is that the Tigers completely wipe the slate, even after the most gutting losses. There are a bunch of juniors and seniors, and it’s been tough to keep them down.

The attitudes and confidence have been steady all season long, whether it was after their 5-1 start in the SEC, or six losses in seven games. The best example was probably the most recent game, where Auburn turned around after losing by 32 at Kentucky, and played completely fearless in Tuscaloosa and nearly notched maybe the best win of the entire college basketball season.

You’ll rarely see Pearl critique individual performances or players with this team. It’s not the most talented squad he’s had here — a group comprised mostly good role players from last year’s SEC championship team. He knows they play emotionally and need to be confident.

MCKEE: Feels safe to say that Auburn is going to be a desperate team on Saturday with it needing to win to get into the NCAA Tournament and with how Wednesday's loss to Alabama ended. Just how desperate of a team do you think the Tigers will be and do you think they will be able to play well as a desperate team?

KING: Pearl and his players have concretely declared this game as a must-win. Auburn’s coaches have laid out everything in front of their team: win, and you’re in the NCAA Tournament. Lose, and the pressure keeps mounting.

The last time Pearl talked so much about a must-win game, Auburn beat Missouri at home by 33.

Now, the Tigers have another massive mental challenge, needing to flush an emotional and dramatic loss to their arch rival. But there’s no precedent for Auburn to come out flat, especially at home in one of the highest-stakes games of the Pearl era.

MCKEE: What are the keys for Auburn winning the rematch with Tennessee?

KING: Since shooting just 11 percent from 3-point land in the loss in Knoxville, Auburn’s stroke from downtown is much improved, with the Tigers hitting 39 percent of their shots from downtown in the seven games since. They’re coming off a season-best 12-of-20 makes at Alabama.

It’s not an effective game plan, of course, to count on streaky shooting, but it could end up being a weapon Auburn simply didn’t have when it played in Knoxville and went 3-of-27 from beyond the arc.

Pearl joked Friday when giving some keys to the matchup: “Rebounding. Probably the second-biggest key is rebounding. And I would say rebounding is probably third.” In Knoxville, the Vols’ shooting numbers were stymied, but they grabbed 14 offensive boards and had 10 second-chance points in a game where Tennessee had a single-digit lead most of the way.

Auburn bounced back from some its recent rebounding struggles against Alabama, where it finished plus-1 on the glass against a strong rebounding team. But the loss of Dylan Cardwell for at least one game due to an ankle injury is a setback for the Tigers’ rebounding prowess off the bench. Freshman Yohan Traore will have to be in position down low and be confident against a physical Tennessee front line.

 

MCKEE: If Auburn can get into the tournament, do you think it's a team capable of making a deep run?

KING: It’s difficult for me to look at a team that hasn’t closed out a tight game against a quality opponent in months and say Auburn is built for a run in March.

But at the same time, the Tigers have the defense to stay in most games. Shotmaking has often left a lot to be desired, but as aforementioned, Auburn might be starting to click a bit with its 3-point effectiveness.

Making the tournament for the fourth time under Pearl would be a successful campaign considering everything Auburn has been through this season, and winning a game would only add to that. With the right first-round matchup, Auburn could certainly lean on defense and hope for a well-executed offensive game plan for a victory. The Tigers certainly won’t be projected by many to make it to the second weekend, but there’s a lot of experience and fight on this roster, which can never be counted out.

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247sports.com

 

Decisions on staying or going await Auburn Senior Day honorees

Mark Murphy

3–4 minutes

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AUBURN, Alabama–A pair of starters for the Auburn basketball team, who will be among the players honored at Saturday’s Senior Day ceremonies, said they can’t say for sure whether or not it will be their final game at Neville Arena. Auburn will close the regular season with a 1 p.m. CST matchup vs. Tennessee that will be televised on ESPN.

Jaylin Williams, a forward, and guard/forward Allen Flanigan will be players Coach Bruce Pearl will be counting on to give the Tigers a chance to win vs. the Volunteers. Both have been contributors for four seasons, but because of the Covid exception rule they will be eligible to play again for the 2023-24 season.

Asked if he plans to play another college season, Flanigan said, “Right now I am focused on the season and finishing this thing out the right way. Once that comes to an end I will start thinking about the factors then.”

Answering the same question, Williams said, “Yeah, I haven’t really been thinking about it much. We have been struggling to win games here the last five weekends so I am just trying to get on track with my teammates and figure out how we are going to win and continue to play throughout March.”

Another starter, graduate transfer guard Zep Jasper, will be honored for his two seasons with the Tigers. He does not have any eligibility after this season. Other players who will be honored are walk-ons Lior Berman and Chandler Leopard along with center Babatunde Akingbola, a scholarship player.

“I love Auburn, the community, the fans, friends, everyone,” said Jasper, who previous played at College of Charleston. “To go out with a win against a great Tennessee team, it would just be exciting for me because I have cherished so many moments here, just off of two years. It just means so much to me to have people that have your back and know that you can always count on people from Auburn, from Auburn in general and the Auburn family.”

Williams and Flanigan agreed with Jasper that Saturday will be a special day with both expecting a large turnout of family members. “It will be a very emotional day,” Williams said. “Me and Al have been here the same amount of years–we came in at the same time. It is going to be like crazy to see each other walk across that stage. The other guys got here at the same time, too, like Lior and Chandler. We have been on so many different teams together. We have been through so much together.”

Pearl said that there is a possibility that Williams, Flanigan and Berman could play for the 2023-24 Tigers. He said there is a solid chance that both Akingbola and Leopard could transfer to another program where they would have an expanded role. The coach said that Leopard is the best shooter on the team and that Akingbola has contributed mostly as a practice player in addition to being “a great ambassador” for Auburn hoops.

23COMMENTS

The Tigers are 19-11 overall and 9-8 in the SEC. The Vols, who defeated the Tigers 46-43 this season at Knoxville, are 22-8 overall, 11-6 in the SEC and 4-5 in road games.

Huge Game for Tigers, Auburn Coach

Pearl's Friday Press Conference Video

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i have idea if this guys is any good but i have been looking for the berman dunk and he has a picture teaser so maybe...................

 

 

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