Observations: Auburn 74, Houston 69
After being down 9 with 15 minutes to play, Auburn took off and fought its way to a road victory over one of the nation's elites.
What a first week of Auburn basketball season, huh?
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(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
HOUSTON — When a two-handed tomahawk dunk from Chaney Johnson clanged hard off the back of the rim and went out of bounds on the other side of the court, the takes flew even further.
Auburn’s guards don’t have what it takes offensively against this defense. The shot selection hasn’t been good. The frontcourt isn’t physical enough. The whistles are killing you on the road. All those missed free throws are gonna cost them the game.
And there’s no way they were going to win after whatever happened on that plane.
As Houston took advantage of Johnson’s missed dunk and soon stretched its lead to nine with 15 minutes left to play, it felt like all the critics — both inside and outside of the Auburn fan base — were going to be proven right.
But things can change quickly in college basketball.
A hustle play by an All-American center can spark an 8-0 run that can feel so much bigger against the nation’s best defense.
A ferocious defensive effort by a veteran backcourt can slow down one of the sport’s most efficient weapons.
A rebounding masterclass by the hardest-working guy on the team, a former Division II transfer, can secure the stops that you need.
A close-knit coaching staff can scheme up more ways to dominate on both ends of the floor.
A team can settle down and hit the biggest free throws of the game, no matter what had happened earlier.
And a 5-star true freshman, playing in just his second collegiate game that counted, can turn into an icon in an instant with his fearless shotmaking.
“Stepped up, showed up,” Bruce Pearl said. “Big nuts. Big nuts. That's what it takes.”
Then, before you know it, a 9-point deficit turns into a 5-point win in a heavyweight bout between — according to the most respected ratings system — the two best teams in the sport. (And now, for the first time ever, Auburn is No. 1 on KenPom.)
Auburn’s 74-69 win over Houston on Saturday night in the Toyota Center is arguably the best regular-season result under Pearl.
The Tigers were playing a virtual road game, even though there were hundreds of orange-and-blue fans in the NBA arena.
They were also not catching any breaks, outside of a few early banked-in shots, and they were on the wrong end of a whistle that gave Houston all the momentum.
And they were missing two players, as freshman wing Jahki Howard and senior forward Ja’Heim “Turtle” Hudson did not make the trip after a headline-making incident Friday that caused the team plane to turn around and return to Auburn.
“You know, stuff happens,” star center Johni Broome said. “But at the end of the day, we came here to play basketball. Everybody was locked in with each other. We were our brother's keeper. We have a strong family here.”
That family was strong enough to shake off a Texas-sized amount of adversity and put together one of the best second-half comebacks you’ll ever see.
Auburn stared down the most consistent Division I men’s basketball program of the last several years and didn’t blink, winning with a mix of old and new. It took everybody, and it took everything the Tigers had, all the way until the end.
“We preached all week that it's a 40-minute game,” freshman phenom Tahaad Pettiford said. “It's not 20. Just because we're down, it doesn't mean we're not gonna have a run and comeback and do what we have to do.”
Auburn sent a message to whoever stayed up late to watch it take down Houston: This team has the potential to beat whoever, wherever, whenever. It just proved that in a November matchup that felt a lot more like March — and one of the later weekends.
It’s just one game. There’s a long, difficult road ahead. Losses will inevitably happen. But an Auburn team that went months without a signature win last season got arguably the best-possible one just four days into this season.
This might just be the beginning.
“I like my team,” Pearl said. “We've got stuff to work on. We're gonna get better.”
Here are four Observations from Auburn’s massive 74-69 win at Houston, along with the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and the Quote of the Night.
PG/SG Tahaad Pettiford (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)