Profitable what’s arguably the best convention in males’s school basketball historical past is extraordinarily exhausting. After clinching the SEC common season title in Saturday’s win at Kentucky, No. 1 Auburn (27-3) was completely outmatched in Tuesday’s street recreation versus Texas A&M (21-9), falling 83-72 in Reed Enviornment. Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl didn’t see the kind of physicality he has come to count on from his program.
The Aggies relied on its staggering benefit in offensive rebounding and its protection on Wood Award contender Johni Broome, who quickly left the sport with a shoulder challenge and completed with eight factors and 7 boards. Texas A&M glue man Andersson Garcia posted 11 factors, 11 rebounds, two steals and one block, completely depicting the group’s preventing spirit.
Conversely, Auburn appeared torpid. Pearl was not precisely shocked by the underwhelming outing, attributing an absence of stakes as a attainable motive why the Tigers didn’t crash the defensive glass with extra urgency.
“It is human nature now,” the longtime coach mentioned after the loss, per Auburn Reside’s Justin Hokanson. “This recreation didn’t have implications so far as a convention championship. If it did, would the blokes have put their our bodies on the road a little bit bit extra? I hope so.”
Did Auburn merely exhale a little bit too early?
Auburn basketball pushed by means of a non-conference slate that included Houston, Iowa State, Duke and Purdue earlier than going to battle within the relentless SEC. Solely two groups within the league, LSU and South Carolina, have a shedding report this season. Sustaining supreme focus and depth was essential for Pearl’s squad to win the outright convention title, and it accomplished that mission with per week to spare.
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A celebration presumably ensued over the weekend, and maybe the nice vibes stayed with Auburn on its solution to Faculty Station. Texas A&M’s four-game shedding streak might need given the top-ranked group some additional confidence as effectively. The Tigers know higher than to relaxation simple on this unforgiving convention, nonetheless.
Auburn can nonetheless safe the No. 1 total seed within the NCAA Match with this defeat, and sadly, the gamers might need subconsciously been conscious of that. Or, perhaps the Aggies had been merely higher on this night time. They deserve their due.
In any case, Bruce Pearl will use this humbling consequence as motivation for Saturday’s common season finale versus Alabama, and within the necessary video games that lie forward. He and the remainder of the nation know what this group is able to when it’s enjoying at peak type.
Duke, Florida and now Texas A&M. That’s the brief record of groups which have overwhelmed the Tigers through the 2024-25 marketing campaign. Pearl will do all the things in his energy to make sure that it doesn’t get any longer.