3/19/23 Basketball Articles

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si.com

 

Takeaways from Auburn basketball’s NCAA tournament loss to Houston

Jeremy Robuck

2–3 minutes

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The Tigers watch 10 point halftime lead vanish as their dance comes to an end.

The Auburn Tigers fell to the NCAA Tournament favorites Saturday night. Auburn led by 10 at halftime, but missed free throws and stagnant offense got them in the 2nd half. The Tigers showed they had what it takes to play with the best teams all year, but struggled to close games and felt like they were an offensive piece away. Auburn basketball will come back stronger next year. Here are a few takeaways from tonight’s game.

Free throws

Auburn went 19-of-36 from the foul line. That's 17 missed free throws. Auburn lost by 17.

Embarrassing way to lose a game.

Chip on the shoulder

This is Auburn basketball, playing hard like everyone is against you. Auburn dominated the first half, and led Houston at the break by 10. The Tigers looked like veterans out there. They looked confident. They played like they have been capable of playing and showed that they belong on the floor with the best.

The SEC has been dominate

The Southeastern Conference has multiple teams still dancing in March. It has been a down year in college basketball, and the SEC isn’t as strong as it was last year. However, it may be less a down year for the SEC than any other conference. The Big 12 has had a good year, but Arkansas took down Kansas to advance to the Sweet 16. The Vols defeated Duke today and will keep dancing. Kentucky as well as the bloody tide are still alive. The SEC is becoming a premier conference in college basketball.

Tre Donaldson

What a tournament for the freshman. Donaldson has looked talented but timid this year. He seems to have shed the timid lately. Donaldson has had an amazing tournament. He hit his first 5 three pointers across the first two games. He found some confidence on offense, and is really showing his potential value to the Tigers future.

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Auburn crumbles in 2nd half of season-ending loss to top-seeded Houston

Updated: Mar. 18, 2023, 11:23 p.m.|Published: Mar. 18, 2023, 8:34 p.m.

7–8 minutes

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A return trip to Kansas City for another Sweet 16 was within reach for Auburn midway through its second-round game against top-seeded Houston.

Instead, Bruce Pearl’s team was left with a sour taste in its mouth as its season came crashing down thanks to a disastrous second half at Legacy Arena. The Tigers surrendered a double-digit halftime lead and were rendered helpless as their offense went stagnant in the second half of an 81-64 loss to the Cougars.

Read more Auburn basketball: “Frustrating” free-throw issues sink Auburn in second-round loss to Houston

Rewinding Auburn’s 81-64 loss to Houston

Five-star freshman Yohan Traore addresses future

“I didn’t know Houston was going to come out in the second half and just punch us in the mouth,” Auburn guard Zep Jasper said.

Houston outscored Auburn, 50-23, after halftime as the Tigers struggled to sustain any semblance of an offense over the game’s final 20 minutes. Auburn shot just 4-of-24 (16.7 percent) in the second half, which included a stretch of 11 consecutive missed shot attempts over the span of 10 minutes and 37 seconds, and committed twice as many turnovers (six) as assists (three).

“I think we got some pretty good looks,” Pearl said. “There wasn’t a lot of, like -- there wasn’t a ton of panic. Maybe a few possessions in the last 5 or 6 minutes when we didn’t run (the offense) -- panic meaning we didn’t run anything, overdribbled. In the second half we drove it downhill and sometimes we got fouled and sometimes they blocked our shot. And in the first half we had much more purpose driving it, passing it. We didn’t share the ball in the second half.”

Houston ramped up its defensive effort in the second half, extending its pressure above the 3-point line and shoring up its presence inside. Auburn missed all five of its 3-point attempts in the second half and had one-third of its shot attempts blocked, with Houston registering a block on 40 percent of Auburn’s misses; Jarace Walker and J’Wan Roberts each blocking four shots in the second half and combing for 11 of the Cougars’ season-high 12 blocks on the night.

“They’re just athletes, dawg,” center Dylan Cardwell said. “They’re all athletes. I’ve never seen a team that short be the No. 1 shot blocking team in the nation. They got to some balls that surprised me. They’re not as tall as they look. But I think they clamped down on defense, they were more locked in and it came down to the free throw battle and we lost by a big percentage.”

Auburn watched its 10-point halftime lead evaporate during that stretch, emerging from the drought trailing by three. AAC Player of the Year Marcus Sasser drilled back-to-back 3-pointers, the second coming with 12:55 to play to give Houston its first lead since the 6:15 mark of the first half. Sasser, despite being hampered by foul trouble in the second half, finished with 22 points.

Sasser picked up his fourth foul with 10:53 to play and went to the bench with Auburn ahead by two. By the time he checked back into the game with 3:37 remaining, Houston built a 13-point lead.

That was in large part due to Tramon Mark, who finished with a game-high 26 points, 20 of which came in the second half. Mark tied the game at 50-50 with 9:55 to play, and Jamal Shead put the Cougars in front for good with a pair of free throws on the ensuing possession. During the seven-minute stretch that Sasser was on the bench with his fourth foul, Mark scored 16 points -- doubling Auburn’s total during that span as Houston went on a 24-9 run.

“You know, this isn’t Tramon’s team, it’s Marcus’s team,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “...When Marcus went out and Jamal went out, we knew exactly what we were going to do, and Tramon was ready for it because he’s a really good player.”

As Houston found its footing offensively, hitting tough shot after tough shot, Auburn simply couldn’t cobble together quality possessions and was completely dreadful from the free-throw line despite being in the bonus with more than 10 minutes to play. Auburn went 15-of-26 from the free-throw line in the second half and finished just 19-of-36 at the line for what was one of its worst foul-shooting performances of the season — and at the most inopportune time. Houston, meanwhile, was a perfect 18-of-18 from the free-throw line in the second half.

“Shots just weren’t falling,” Auburn point guard Wendell Green Jr. said. “.... Essentially, they were making free throws the last 10, eight minutes, we were both going to the free-throw line. They were making them, we were missing them. That’s kind of when the lead went away.”

Things went about as poorly as they could for Auburn in the second half, which represented a direct inverse of what was a nearly flawless first 10 minutes against the tournament’s No. 2 overall seed and one of the nation’s best defenses. The Tigers took a 41-31 lead into the break after closing the half on a 17-4 run.

“We had great halves in a whole season, we just never had a great game,” Cardwell said.

Auburn shot 55.2 percent from the field in the first half, including a 5-of-11 clip from beyond the arc. That included two more triples from freshman Tre Donaldson, whose NCAA Tournament career started with five consecutive makes after his 3-for-3 performance in the opening round against Iowa.

The Tigers had eight assists on 16 made baskets in the first half, and they committed just two turnovers during the opening 20 minutes. They even held an edge on the boards, outrebounding the Cougars, 21-9, despite Houston opening the game with seven offensive boards in the first 10 minutes (including three of them on the opening possession of the night). Defensively, they limited the Cougars to 34.4 percent shooting and just 2-of-12 from 3-point range.

More importantly, after Sasser scored nine points in the games first five-plus minutes, Auburn held him scoreless for the final 14:37 of the half.

It was an almost flawless first half for Auburn against the field’s No. 2 overall seed. The only thing that didn’t go the Tigers’ way? Free throws. Auburn was just 4-of-10 from the charity stripe in the opening half, including an airball from Donaldson after his hot start.

Turns out, those struggles at the line were a harbinger of things to come, as the Tigers’ season and hopes of another NCAA Tournament run fell apart over the final 20 minutes in Birmingham.

“When it was so easy in the first half, I think there was a chance we thought that’s how it was going to be for the rest of the game,” Pearl said, “because we were dominated in the second half on both ends of the floor.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

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al.com

 

Joseph Goodman: The inside story on Auburn’s big miss

Published: Mar. 19, 2023, 6:46 a.m.

6–7 minutes

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The dream ended for Auburn on Saturday night in Birmingham, and Alabama is moving on in the NCAA Tournament. To understand the vast differences between the two teams, the box score and stats don’t tell the whole story.

Not even close.

Alabama and Auburn compete at the highest levels of college basketball these days, and in that world it’s not just about the talent on the court. It’s also about the talent that got away.

Really, to fully grasp how everything went down at Legacy Arena this week, it requires an appreciation for Auburn coach Bruce Pearl’s major letdown way back in 2021. This entire season would have been different in the SEC, and in this NCAA Tournament, too, if Pearl had landed super-recruit Scoot Henderson instead of Henderson and his family choosing a new option available to high school players, a path straight to the pros through the NBA’s G-League.

RELATED: ‘Frustrating’ free-throw struggles sink Auburn

RELATED: Rewinding Auburn’s loss to Houston

RELATED: San Diego State coaches says he needs to study up

Pearl revisited Henderson’s choice in the news conference after Auburn’s 81-64 loss to Houston. How did the decision of Henderson reshape the SEC?

Pearl didn’t answer that question directly, but he did offer keen insight into the inner workings of modern day team building for major programs like Auburn and Alabama.

“That was pre-NIL,” Pearl said. “So is there a chance that with NIL Scoot Henderson comes to Auburn? Possibly.”

And along with Henderson, other elite players probably would have followed. Maybe even some of the players on Houston and even Alabama’s team.

“I finished second on a bunch of the guys in this tournament,” Pearl said on the day between Auburn’s first- and second-round games.

Pearl got the most out of a limited roster this season. It might not feel that way with Alabama clowning teams in the NCAA Tournament like the Harlem Globetrotters, but Auburn will remain an elite basketball destination after this season. Why? One reason is because Pearl is a great coach, but another is because Auburn has made a major commitment to helping grow that thing called NIL.

“NIL,” or name, image and likeness, represents a path for NIL collectives to match or exceed money from the G-League. Universities can’t pay players as employees, but NIL collectives associated with universities can pool the money to pay players for their NIL. It’s a shady workaround, but that’s the business of college basketball and football these days.

Under that backdrop, and behind the scenes, the money of the game is reshaping the sport of college basketball and this NCAA Tournament is being affected by it. How do you put together a championship contender of future NBA players? You pay them money through NIL collectives, and then convince them to play defense.

College athletics are changing, and the NCAA Tournament games in Birmingham and elsewhere served as the stages for the opening weekend of a new era. Now it’s on to Louisville for Alabama and the Kansas City regional for Houston. Guess where Duke and North Carolina will be? Back at home.

The ACC used to be the best and the baddest basketball conference around. Maryland joined the Big Ten long ago, Duke went out to Tennessee on Saturday and the only teams from the ACC that remain in the field are Miami and Pitt. Both play on Sunday.

North Carolina didn’t even make the NCAA Tournament, and then the Tar Heels refused to play in the NIT.

In Birmingham, the two best basketball players here took over their games on Saturday when the moments called for greatness. It doesn’t always happen that way in the NCAA Tournament, which banks — and makes huge bank — on the big guys cracking under pressure, but the No.1 seeds in Birmingham proved they were made of tougher stuff than the top-line teams elsewhere on the first weekend of March Madness. No.1 Purdue fell to 16-seed Fairleigh-Dickson on Friday and No.1 Kansas flamed out against No.8 Arkansas on Saturday.

Something tells me Fairleigh-Dickinson’s NIL stores probably don’t come close to matching the resources of an Arkansas team backed by Wal-Mart money. It wouldn’t surprise me if Alabama met Arkansas in the championship game of this tournament. The Hogs, like Alabama, are loaded with future pros.

Alabama has Brandon Miller, who is projected to be one of the top picks in the NBA, and he played great in the Crimson Tide’s easy 73-51 victory against eight-seed Maryland. Houston’s star was Marcus Sasser, and he delivered the goods despite playing with an injury in the Cougars’ mauling of Auburn.

In the end, it was about unmatched talent, and more than likely it will be that way until the Final Four in Houston. Alabama looks unbeatable with its length and its defense. Houston’s athleticism is equaled only by its furious effort. They started together in Birmingham, and perhaps they’ll end it all together, too.

It’s all about the players, though, and Birmingham’s return to the NCAA Tournament proved that in more ways than one. Either coaches land the blue-chip recruits needed for a deep tournament run, or they’re nine-seed Auburn. The Tigers didn’t lack anything for energy. Skill? Auburn could have used a little more.

In the end, Auburn missed 20 free throws and only made four field goals the entire second half. In the beginning, and I mean long before this season, Auburn missed out on one of the best players in the country when teams built like Houston and Alabama did not. Houston had Sasser, and he made five 3-pointers. Alabama had Miller, and he took over the game when the run of play demanded it.

Auburn, like Pearl said after his loss, will be out recruiting on Sunday, and this time the Tigers better not miss.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama: A season of hope and the making of Nick Saban’s ‘ultimate team’”. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.

[aubaseball 2,893]

The one thing that stands out to me in all of this was the statement from Jasper about them coming out in the second half and playing so hard.   What did he or the other players think that Houston was going to play like in the second half?   Not turn up the heat? Not play with more passion? Their tournament hopes were on the line.   They were a number one seed for a reason.   That statement summed up the mindset of this year’s team.