Observations: Auburn 85, North Carolina 72

After leading a top-12 team from wire-to-wire, the Tigers have earned the right to play for the prestigious Maui Invitational championship.

C Johni Broome (Steven Leonard/Auburn Tigers)

LAHAINA, Hawaii — It’ll definitely get tested next week in the cauldron of Cameron Indoor Stadium. It’ll probably get tested in a few hours, when a Memphis team that has already knocked off UConn and Michigan State takes the floor.

But Tuesday night at the Maui Invitational confirmed it for now:

Auburn looks like the best men’s college basketball team in America, and Johni Broome looks like the best men’s college basketball player in America.

The latest proof was in a heated semifinal at the Lahaina Civic Center, when Auburn faced a North Carolina squad that rallied from 21 down to get there and wasn’t that far removed from nearly pulling off a massive road comeback at current AP No. 1 Kansas.

Broome scored the first four points of the game. Then he hit a stepback 3-pointer.

Then he hit a layup. Then he hit another inside shot. A little more than four minutes into the game, Broome was already in double figures — and a UNC offense that has been one of the highest-scoring in the nation was stuck at 6 points.

“I knew I had to start it early for my guys,” Broome said later. “My teammates depend on me, and I had their back.”

Auburn ultimately stretched an early lead out to 15 points. When North Carolina stormed back later in the half with an 11-0 run, Broome scored five of the next seven points to reassert control. When he hit his last shot of the first half, putting Auburn up by 8, he had already put up an 18-point double-double.

North Carolina never got closer than a 9-point deficit the rest of the way. Auburn never trailed and was only tied for the opening 24 seconds with a powerhouse program that is built for wild comebacks.

“Coaches can help win games,” Bruce Pearl said after an 85-72 win. “Players win championships. They're holding each other accountable. They recognize that we’ve got to close out, and we’ve got to compete. We can't take possessions off.”

In six games this season, the Tigers have now beaten three top-12 opponents away from home. While the other two were comeback victories against elite defenses, this was the case of keeping an elite offense at arm’s length.

But that shows the versatility of this Auburn basketball team, one that had a superstar stat line from Broome yet still had five others score in double figures. The Tigers became the first team to hold the Tar Heels to under 80 points this season.

Now they’ll have an opportunity to win the most prestigious early-season tournament in the sport Wednesday. It’s a chance to, as Pearl loves to say, make history for a team that looks like it could have plenty of chances to create even more this season.

Here are four Observations, along with the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and the Quote of the Night from Auburn’s wire-to-wire win over North Carolina in Maui.

PG/SG Tahaad Pettiford (Steven Leonard/Auburn Tigers)

Special team, special hustle, special defense

Auburn has a good argument to be considered the best team in the country right now, but it’s not because it has an overwhelming amount of on-paper talent.