NIT Observations: Auburn 75, Nevada 69
The Tigers took the fight right to their visitors for a third and final home win in the NIT. Up next: A trip to Indy for a chance at a trophy.
AUBURN — Let’s be honest: Auburn basketball didn’t want to be here.
This is a program that considers making the NCAA Tournament a key barometer of success now. This is a team that has to be looking at that field and thinking it could have gone on a First Four-to-second weekend run like Texas — which Auburn beat and exceeded in several important bracket metrics — is on right now.
As Kevin Overton said earlier this week, Auburn’s hearts are in a different tournament.
But they sure looked like they were also in the NIT on Wednesday night.
Auburn was a decent favorite over Nevada in the NIT quarterfinals. The Tigers represented the last high-major left in the consolation tournament, and the Wolf Pack were a decidedly good, not great team out of the Mountain West this season.
Still, the message heading into the game was simple: Nevada was playing with a lot of passion and purpose, and Auburn had to match that. After all, these Tigers haven’t been good enough or consistent enough to take anything for granted this season.
After 40 minutes Wednesday night, Auburn left the floor at Neville Arena as a winner for the last time this season. Nevada only led for 28 seconds. Auburn led for all but one minute and 46 seconds, with most of that coming by double-digits.
Not bad for a team that would rather be somewhere else, right?
“I've said it a million times: It's not the tournament we want to be playing in,” Auburn head coach Steven Pearl said after a 75-69 win. “But our guys have done a great job of using this platform, using this opportunity to just go out there and hoop. I'm really proud of them for that, and it's something we can build on.”
And it just so happens that, by going a perfect 3-for-3 at home in the NIT, Auburn will be heading to the city that everybody else in college basketball wants to be next week: Indianapolis.
The NCAA Tournament’s Final Four will be held there. The NIT’s final four, so to speak, will be there, too — along with the national title games in Division II and Division III. Auburn is still going to be playing basketball in April, which was the ultimate goal.
The venues and the stakes are obviously going to be different. But that hasn’t seemed to matter for Auburn since the first 15 minutes of this NIT.
“This year, this tournament isn't the tournament we all wanted to be in,” said point guard Tahaad Pettiford, the only Tiger who was at the Final Four last year. “But it just shows the type of guys we have on this team -- that are going to come in every single day and give it their all, no matter if we're playing in the NIT or March Madness.
“I'm happy to play every single day with these guys, and I just can't wait to go play another game.”
Auburn, almost quite literally, punched its ticket to Indianapolis on Wednesday night with a physical, grind-it-out win over Nevada.
The Tigers had their worst 3-point shooting performance in almost two whole months, yet they were able to put up 46 points in the paint — including 10 dunks — and spent most of the game winning with defense for a change.
“We followed the coaches’ game plan,” said Filip Jović, who had his best game in months. “We've been together. We communicated tonight. We just protected each other.”
Of course, it wasn’t always pretty. In addition to the outside shooting cooldown, Auburn’s defense once again gave up too many 3s in the final minutes, taking what had been a comfortable double-digit cushion down to a nervier six-point lead.
But there were enough stops and buckets to go around in crunch time for the Tigers, and they will now head to historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in a week to play the Cinderella of the NIT — Illinois State — for a chance to play for a trophy on Easter Sunday.
And, let’s be honest again: In this day and age of college basketball, there’s no telling how many of these Indy-bound Auburn players will be back next season. The Tigers could be getting extra reps for guys who will be playing somewhere else soon.
You can’t change the past, and you can’t predict the future. But you can handle your present, and Auburn has done just that, with a shorthanded roster, in a situation that so many other high-major teams would have just avoided in the first place.
“One of the things I said was like, ‘This is just a great opportunity to get film of yourself, regardless of what you're deciding to do next year — whether you're going pro, whether you're deciding to transfer, whether you're coming back, it's just three great opportunities already on national television to show what you're capable of,’” Pearl said. “And all of our guys have really stepped up to the plate and done that. For the guys that can return and that want to return, it's just great for us to be able to spend a little more time together.
“Get more practices in and get more game experience in, because it'll pay dividends next year, having gone through these situations, and get us ready for the tournament next year. So, guys have done a really good job of buying in and locking in, and we were able to get three wins at home against three pretty good teams.”
Here are three big Observations from Auburn’s 75-69 win over Nevada in the NIT quarterfinals, along with the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and Quote of the Night.
Filip Jović was at his Bosnian Bruisin’ best
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