What Bruce Pearl said after No. 1 Auburn’s 53-51 win over No. 6 Tennessee
AUBURN, Ala. — What Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said during his postgame press conference after his No. 1-ranked Tigers rallied in the final minute to beat No. 6 Tennessee 53-51 at Neville Arena Saturday night:
Opening Statement
“You know I got asked by Andy during the pregame show, ‘What exactly do you mean when you compliment Rick Barnes and talk about the way his teams play?’ And my guys, I’m sure you heard it from either Miles or Johni, but our guys really respected that team, even after the game. They knew they had a great win because they beat a great team.
“Those are some of the best guards we’re going to face. Those guys don’t take possessions off defensively. Catches were difficult. Shots were contested. They turned us over 11 times. They were all forced. I’m sure that wasn’t a very pretty game on national television because it was so difficult to score. I knew it was going to be low scoring. I just knew offense was going to difficult.
“But Rick Barnes’ teams play the right way. They don’t take possessions off. They don’t beat themselves. I think at the end of the game, both teams were exhausted. Absolutely exhausted. So who, through that exhaustion, could make a shot or maybe make a play? I thought Miles Kelly had a couple big shots for us in the second half. Tahaad (Pettiford) came in there and kind of gave us a spark offensively, which he obviously does.
“And I just want to thank my trainers and doctors and Johni Broome for living in the training room for two weeks. I did not think he was going to come back tonight in the middle of the week. And even here the day before. I knew he wanted to go, I didn’t know he was going to be able to be effective … I think the team really respected their leader for putting it on the line. And obviously I don’t know that we win if he doesn’t come back.”
Auburn finding the to win a tough game
“We can play better, and we still were able to beat a great team. We’ve won four of the last six games in the last possession. It’s going to be a battle every night, but we are happy with this one because that’s a great team.
“… The big key is you can’t get too high or too low. We’ve got to get better. I’ve got to do a better job. The book is out on everybody. What’s Plan B? What’s Plan C? We’ve got to come up with it.”
“What Johni did with his rehab all week to be able to come out and affect winning so much, all he cared about was winning. As a leader, it’s another statement.”
If he knew Miles Kelly was going to make the go-ahead corner three with 30 seconds left
“No doubt. I had no doubt it was going in. Absolutely no doubt. And neither did anybody in this building. Neither did any of his teammates. He hit a big shot coming off a pin down, too, about five or six minutes earlier.”
Auburn Director of Operations Maddux Jeffreys knowing what Tennessee was going to run at the end of the game
“Maddux Jeffries is my director of basketball operations, but like many on our staff, they play multiple roles. Maddux is in charge of special teams under basket, out of bound situations, both offensively, defensively side out of bound situations, offensive, defensive pressure sets. And if you want to look at one of the areas I think people compliment our basketball program on is that we’re good in special teams, special situations. And Maddux really studies that. He had the play drawn up at huddle. They ran exactly what we thought we would run.”
Auburn holding Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler to 8-for-26 shooting
“Our guys are exhausted. I told our guys before the game, I said, you’re gonna be more tired after this game than any game we play all year long because Tennessee, if you’re gonna guard them, you’re gonna wear yourself out guarding them. But at the same time, we didn’t have the kind of energy we needed to execute offensively either.”
Auburn having won six games by five points or less this season
“Well, I mean, we’ve won some close games now, and so I think we can learn something from them. I know we can play better. I think, look, I give Tennessee all the credit for how poorly we played at times, but the good thing is our guys are all feeling good, like, knowing, man, we could play better, and we still were able to beat a great team. They’ve got to feel good about themselves.”
Chaney Johnson’s 10 points and four rebounds for Auburn
“I expect a lot from Chaney. I think Chaney is really good. And I think Chaney is better than he thinks he is. He did really well tonight. But honestly, he could do better. Wait until Chaney starts knocking down threes. I’m calling it right now. He can do it. I do think we need him to start doing it to beat the best teams on our schedule.”
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