The Auburn Tigers ran the gauntlet of blue bloods in the NCAA Tournament to reach their first Final Four ever, outlasting Kentucky in the Elite 8.
The Auburn Tigers entered the 2019 NCAA Tournament as a wild card, the No. 5 seed in the Midwest Region. When they’re clicking, Bruce Pearl’s team can beat anyone in the country. The question would be, however, if they were indeed firing on all cylinders in March Madness. They definitively proved on Sunday afternoon that they are as they punched their ticket to the program’s first-ever Final Four.
Getting to the Final Four is impressive enough, but the road that Auburn took to get there is remarkable. Their win in the Elite 8 over Kentucky completed a run through the gauntlet of college basketball blue bloods after having topped the Kansas Jayhawks (Round of 32) and North Carolina Tar Heels (Sweet 16) in the previous two rounds. That means that the Tigers took down the three winningest programs in college basketball history to make it to Minneapolis.
In case you’re thinking that’s not impressive, beating those three teams in a single NCAA Tournament isn’t just difficult, it’s something that has almost never happened before. In fact, the Tigers are just the second team to ever accomplish that feat, joining the 1997 Arizona Wildcats. For those wondering, Lute Olsen’s team won the National Championship that year.
Taking on the Kentucky, an SEC foe that blew them out in the regular season, in the final stage of their run through college hoops’ elite, Auburn looked completely unlike themselves, and not because they were missing Chuma Okeke, who suffered a torn ACL in the Sweet 16. No, they were playing at a far slower pace and shooting far fewer 3-point attempts than they’re accustomed to.
New style of play, no problem for the Tigers, however. Despite falling into an early hole against the Wildcats, the fleet-footed Jared Harper pushed the pace a bit at the end of the first half to keep his team in the mix with some fantastic play, in addition to fantastic defense that forced some tough shots from the Wildcats. In the second half, Auburn came out firing, particularly with Bryce Brown hitting some big shots.
With their timely made buckets, defense, Kentucky’s poor shooting and the Wildcats going ice cold from the free throw line, Auburn was able to force overtime. In the extra five-minute period, the Tigers controlled every minute of the action to advance to the Final Four.
Pearl’s group of shooters now will meet the Virginia Cavaliers in the Final Four, a matchup between programs returning to glory not seen since the 1980s. Given what they showed in their run through the gauntlet, Auburn can play any style and grind out a win with the playmakers and experience they possess.
And, if history is any indication, when you run through the ringer of college basketball royalty, it results in some hardware. We’ll see if Auburn can hold true to that in Minneapolis.