Observations: Tennessee 70, Auburn 65
The Tigers have now lost a third time in four games to an opponent who could go deep in March. And there's plenty to learn from that.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It’s an end to conference play that’s built for massive reactions.
Auburn lost twice in its first 29 games of the season, building an NCAA Tournament resume that is one of the strongest in recent college basketball history. It racked up plenty more Quad 1 victories than anyone in the country and only fell to a pair of teams currently projected to be No. 1 seeds this time tomorrow.
Then Auburn lost three out of its final four games before the Big Dance, including Saturday’s 70-65 defeat to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament semifinals.
So, the first question to Bruce Pearl after the game went like this:
“Three of the last four, is this kind of a flush it, move forward? Is there panic at all?”
“I'm really glad you asked me that question,” Pearl began. “We lost to Alabama, Tennessee and at Texas A&M.”
Pearl paused, side-eyed the room, then put on a sarcastic tone.
“Yeah, we're panicked,” Pearl continued. “That's a real softball. We lost to some great teams. We lost at the buzzer against Alabama. We had possessions here. Yeah, we're panicked. I can hardly wait till next weekend to start playing again. Let's get to Sunday, find out where we're going, find out who we're playing, and let's get back to work.
“I'm looking forward, not back.”
Yes, since clinching the outright SEC championship in the toughest conference season of the modern era, Auburn has won just once. That lone win was a low-scoring, grind-it-out victory over an Ole Miss team that it had blown out the last time.
But, as Pearl said, Auburn lost at Texas A&M on a quick turnaround without Denver Jones. Then it lost an overtime thriller, at the buzzer, to an Alabama team that is still fighting for a No. 1 seed.
A week later, it had its chances to come back and beat a Tennessee team that is also fighting for a No. 1 seed. After going on a 10-0 run to cut the Volunteers’ lead to 2, the Tigers missed six out of its last seven — including a pair of potential game-tying shots.
“I mean, we had a couple opportunities to come out with the dub,” small forward Chad Baker-Mazara said. “We didn't hit shots or free throws. (Tennessee) came out and executed, so you've got to give them some credit. They came out and did things they had to do. We didn't execute as well as we should have.”
Are there troubling trends from these losses? For sure.
Auburn’s free-throw shooting is heading in the wrong direction over the last few weeks. That’s a problem, considering how much the Tigers’ physical brand of defense sends others to the line.
Auburn’s bench scoring has also decreased by double-digits over the last couple of weeks, compared to the winning streak it had to clinch the SEC. That’s a problem, considering how much the Tigers want to rely on their depth.
Both of those trends were massive in the final result on Saturday, which saw Tennessee hang on to what had been a 12-point lead with 6:05 left. Tennessee went 25-27 from the line (93%), while Auburn went 13-22 (59%). Tennessee also got 25 points off the bench, while Auburn scored a grand total of three.
“We didn't show up,” point guard Tahaad Pettiford said. “We beat ourselves. Lot of things we could've fixed. Missed a lot of layups, free throws. A lot of defensive collapse.”
Those negatives don’t happen in a vacuum, though, and they require context. Tennessee, for example, has one of the best defenses in America and took Auburn down to the wire in its own building earlier this season. On Saturday, the Tigers were in a tight game with the Volunteers in their home state.
Auburn has now lost three times late in the season to teams that, if the projections on Bracket Matrix are to be believed, it wouldn’t play until the Elite Eight at the earliest.
“I feel like, honestly, Tennessee, they're good enough to make it to the Final Four, to the championship,” power forward Chaney Johnson said. “So, that was one of those games, and we got outplayed. We've just got to learn from it.”
Like Pearl and Johnson said, though, Auburn is going to have to get back to work to correct the issues that have ailed them down the stretch. These Tigers have put themselves in a position to get, at the very least, two favorable matchups to open the NCAA Tournament.
In order to take full advantage of them, they’re going to have to learn from these losses — even if they’re not worthy of total overreaction in the proper context.
If not, then teams that aren’t expected to make it to the second weekend on paper can be the ones making sure Auburn doesn’t get there.
“It hurts, but we have to learn from it, watch film,” center Johni Broome said. “We'll try to get better going into the March Madness.”
Here are four Observations from Auburn’s 70-65 loss to Tennessee, along with the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and the Quote of the Day.
