AUBURN, Alabama – If you were at the practice Bruce Pearl put his Auburn Tigers through on Friday at Neville Arena — and you’re always welcome, by the way, as is anyone who can make it — you noticed a couple of clear themes.
One, is Zakai Zeigler. The Tennessee senior point guard makes everything work for the Vols on both ends of the floor, and in case the Tigers weren’t already aware, their coach made them keenly so. Two, Pearl wanted his players to understand how much more difficult Rick Barnes’ team was going to make it for them to do things they enjoy doing, such as cutting without bumps, passing without available oxygen and shooting without hands and elbows in their line of vision.
Credit the scout team for doing such an effective job of demonstrating the finer points of a rock fight, the actual Auburn basketball team decided to share in one Saturday. The best offense in all of college basketball had a larger collection of air balls, weird passes and shot-clock violations than it had aesthetically pleasing plays by the end of an exhausting Saturday. But the No. 1-ranked team that possesses that offense still won 53-51.
And that is no small thing.
“It was a rough one,” said Auburn senior forward Johni Broome, whose 16-point, 13-rebound, 33-minute, unlimited-intensity performance on an injured left ankle was the stuff of Naismiths and Woodens. “But we got it done.”
This won’t be the last time the Tigers (18-1, 6-0 SEC) get into a game that doesn’t fit their stylistic preferences. That tends to happen quite a bit in March. This might be the last time they play the No. 6 Vols (17-3, 4-3 SEC) — let’s hope the SEC and NCAA tournaments provide rematches — and if so, they might not see a grittier, tougher opponent.
But to have enough of those elements yourself, as personified by Broome and found in several other contributors Saturday, is how you overcome a hot-shooting, undersized opponent at some point. Or a pesky bunch from the Ivy League. Or whatever. It’s how you overcome the strange disappearance of the best part of your own game.
“We’re gonna have games like this,” Auburn’s Miles Kelly said of a 3-for-20 night from long range for a team that came in 24th nationally in 3-point accuracy at 38.2 percent. “Every shooting night is not gonna be ours.”
Tennessee, the best 3-point defending team in the sport (25.9 percent), won that battle. But Tennessee did not win the game. Auburn’s top-15 defense saw to that, starting with the ability to apply Denver Jones, Tahaad Pettiford and even a little bit of Chad Baker-Mazara to Zeigler. Auburn’s will saw to it, a 6-0 run in the final 1:46, urged on by 9,121 fans who provided full-throated support in response.
Broome and Kelly saw to it. That final run included a crucial Pettiford bucket, a travel call on UT’s Felix Okpara in the face of Broome’s hounding (maybe overly hounding) defense, Chaney Johnson blocking Igor Milicic Jr. on a drive and Zeigler just missing a drive against Broome after he got him and his tender ankle on a switch — a showdown of two players who should be All-Americans when this season ends.
The biggest play was Broome slipping to the basket, getting the ball, having it knocked from his hands by Milicic, getting it back and zipping it out to a waiting Kelly in the corner. It was clean, it was in rhythm, it was rare in this game. And it was good with 30 seconds left.
It was the answer to the question Pearl asked his team, the key question for any coach in a game like this: “Who, through that exhaustion, could make a play?”
Auburn has been in several tight games this season and has lost one, on the road against the other obvious national title favorite, Duke. But the 53 points was 13 lower than the previous low, in a 66-63 win at South Carolina — the Jan. 11 game that got Broome injured, causing him to miss the next two games. The Tigers are still No. 1 nationally in offensive efficiency per Kenpom.com, at 1.293 points per possession. It was 0.869 on this night.
This affair saw the teams go 7-for-42 combined on 3-pointers, with 34 fouls, 23 turnovers and 35 field goals between them. Maybe that wasn’t what ESPN was hoping for in its “College GameDay” debut feature. But there is beauty in the bump of a cutter, the deflection of a pass, the denial of an intention.
“High-level game,” Barnes said, and he left the arena espousing optimism, believing the Vols can still get much better, knowing he has a point guard like no other in Zeigler: “The heartbeat of our team.”
The problem for Tennessee is that Zeigler doesn’t have a backup. He played 39 minutes, turning in 14 points, six rebounds and five assists with one turnover.
“Incredible,” Pearl said of that stat line. “Just incredible.”
And that says nothing of the defense Zeigler applied to Pettiford and Jones, leaving them 3-for-17 combined. That’s the kind of thing that tires legs, and tired legs might help explain why Zeigler missed all six of his 3-point tries.
The Tigers also made it tough on top UT scorer Chaz Lanier. He scored 10. A year ago, the guy in the same general role, Dalton Knecht, went off for 39 points in a Tennessee comeback win over Auburn. Tennessee isn’t quite as good this season. Auburn is better.
The Vols don’t have the depth the Tigers have, and they don’t have a player who can carve out room in the post against any opponent and force a defense to adjust to him.
Auburn has that player. He woke up Saturday morning and saw that a Tennessee fan had put a picture of the orange Tennessee “T” on his car and had constructed a “T” in his lawn as well. Or maybe it was a crafty Auburn fan (see: “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” Forest Whitaker as Charles Jefferson).
Regardless, Broome said: “At that moment, I knew I was playing no matter what.”
How much? After Pearl was certain midweek that he wouldn’t be ready? After two weeks of rehab on the ankle but little opportunity to keep up conditioning?
“I thought maybe 20 minutes,” Pearl said. “Maybe. Maybe.”
But there was no winning this game, the biggest yet of this season, the second top-10 matchup ever at Auburn, between the SEC’s two winningest programs of the past eight seasons, without all Broome could give. His “triple-double,” as Pearl joked, included points, rebounds and 12 missed shots in 19 attempts, a perfect stat line for a night like this.
It ended with Tennessee back at No. 1 in the nation in defensive efficiency. And with no question that the No. 1 team in the nation has the depth, the versatility, the intangibles and the superstar to stay there.
(Top photo of Auburn’s Johni Broome making a move in the post against Tennessee: Jake Crandall / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
