Observations: Auburn 62, Ole Miss 57
The postseason is a marathon, not a sprint. While Auburn wasn't fast out of the blocks Friday, slow and steady won a defensive first leg.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The postseason is supposed to be a marathon, not a sprint.
In order to win a national championship, you have to win six games in three weekends. Before that, to win a conference tournament, you have to win three games in three days — at minimum.
Every basketball team wants to play as well as it can from beginning to end in every single game. That’s especially true for an Auburn squad that has made history this season and has repeatedly stated it wants to stack as many accolades as possible.
But there’s no prize for looking the best in the first day of the postseason. And there are no style points, at all, during tournament basketball.
So, on Friday afternoon, Auburn started its postseason like it was running a marathon. There was a measured, deliberate pace to the proceedings. The Tigers didn’t fire off the blocks with their best-looking stuff. (On offense, it was actually their third-worst efficiency mark of the entire season.)
Instead, Auburn started the game with elite defense — something it hadn’t done in a few weeks. It stayed at that level the rest of the way, getting the job done in the final minutes of a 62-57 win over Ole Miss.
“Look, we hold Ole Miss to 57 points,” Bruce Pearl said afterwards. “I don't know how many times they've scored 57 points all year. We held them to 57 points. Defensive rebounding wins championships. That's obviously what carried the day.”
It wasn’t the full-throttle, peak-speed performance that some were hoping to see out of Auburn. It wasn’t even close to what the Tigers had done in the previous two meetings against the Rebels.
Instead of lighting up the scoreboard and seeing the ball go through the net plenty of times, Auburn did the things that have lower variance than raw offensive success.
“If you can control what you can control, you'll be good with the outcome,” power forward Chaney Johnson said. “As long as we guard and control our energy and effort, we're the best team in the country.”
Would Auburn have liked to play a better brand of basketball on the offensive end? Absolutely.
The Tigers committed 15 turnovers, which led to 18 points — all in the second half. They shot 28.6% from 3-point range after being the very best high-major team in that category in games played away from home this season.
Auburn’s offense didn’t have team success. But it had the best player in the country: Johni Broome, who had 23 points and 15 rebounds in his first game since winning Sporting News National Player of the Year and SEC Player of the Year.
Sometimes, you don’t need much more than that.
“Johni carries us,” Pearl said. “He puts us on his shoulders and is one of the best competitors I think I've ever met. He hates to lose at everything.”
Here are four Observations from Auburn’s SEC Tournament quarterfinal victory over Ole Miss, along with the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and the Suitable For Work Quote of the Day.
