KANSAS CITY, Mo.— After fifth seed Auburn stunned might SEC rival Kentucky, 77-71, here Sunday at the Sprint Center to the NCAA Midwest Region championship, the jubilant Tiger players dumped a waste can of orange and white confetti on coach Bruce Pearl’s head at the victory stand.
Pearl, in turn, handed the trophy to Chuma Okeke, the 6-8 sleek sophomore NBA talent and his most complete player, who was sitting in a wheel chair below after suffering a torn ACL Friday toward the end of the Auburn’s Sweet 16 blowout of North Carolina.
“This game was for Chuma,’’ Pearl told the crowd of fans who stayed around to watch the Tigers cut down the nets. “The next two are for Auburn.’’
Okeke almost weren’t there for his shining moment. He originally was going to watch the game in his hotel room because he was in so much pain. But at halftime, he made the journey over to the arena to see what victory looked like in person.
This is Auburn’s first trip to the Final Four in school history. The Tigers (30-9) will play South top-seeded ACC regular season champion Virginia (33-3) Saturday in the national semi-finals at Minneapolis. Michigan State will play Texas Tech in the other semi-final. The Tigers accomplished their impossible dream by beating the three winningest programs in college basketball history—Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky.
“It’s an honor to be on the floor with those programs, and then when you play hard and play together, obviously, they’re the Cinderella of the tournament,’’ Pearl said. “And that’s what makes March so special, which is it going to be?
“At Auburn, in athletics, we’re not Cinderella in anything. We’re good in all other sports. We win championships. But it’s been a long time since men’s basketball has been good. That’s what makes it special for us.’’
Auburn defeated a powerful Kentucky team that had defeated them twice during the SEC regular season, beating the Tigers, 80-53, Feb. 23 in Lexington.
“I kind of just tried to put that game out of my mind as quick as possible,’’ guard Bryce Brown said. “Personally, I didn’t play well. I let the game come to me a little bit. Personally, I already knew we were going to bounce back from that because of the players we have.’’
The third time was a charm, especially for point guard Jared Harper and Brown. The jet quick Harper scored 26 points and was selected Most Outstanding Player in the region. Brown finished with 25, 17 in the second half when he shot 6 for 6 and made three 3s. And the two combined for 23 of Auburn’s 30 points in the second half before Harper who tied the game at 60-60 on a driving layup with 38 seconds to play in regulation, then took it over in the five-minute overtime when he scored two clutch baskets as the Tigers jumped out to a 70-63 lead with 1:04 to play and hung on from there.
‘’Jared is not on the Bob Cousy watch list. He just isn’t,’’ Pearl said. “The question would be why? He’s one of the best—second team All SEC last year. I don’t think there was anybody in preseason talking this being one of the best backcourts in college basketball. The question is why not? They have been all year long.
“The thing I like about them is they are self-made guys. They both work as hard as anybody. But the best thing about this team is they haven’t had to carry us every game in March.’’
The Tigers have won 12 straight games but the win over Kentucky was the most meaningful and it was motivated by an Instagram picture that made light of Chuma’s situation, showing him in a wheelchair.
‘I seen that this morning,’’ Auburn wing Samir Doughty said. “I think that’s disrespectful and a slap in the face. I’m so glad we came out and battled the entire 40 minutes for him. I know he’s happy. I know he’s proud of us, because if he was out there, you know he would have made a huge difference.’’
Doughty did a particularly good job on Kentucky’s 6-6 freshman guard Tyler Herro, who had been the hero of the Cats’ 62-58 Sweet 16 win over Houston but only scored points on 3 for 9 shooting against the Tigers. Kentucky was basically reduced to a one-man team with star sophomore forward PJ Washington going off for 24 points and 11 rebounds.
The Cats jumped out to a 30-20 lead with 3:12 left on the half, limited Auburn to just seven threes by hugging the line and had the Auburn forwards in foul trouble all game. But they stubbed their toe offensively, shooting just 41 percent, making just 12 of 21 free throws and just 4 of 18 three-point attempts.
“I thought we were going to win the game the whole way until one or two plays in overtime,’’ Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “Never entered my mind we weren’t going to win the game.’’
It never entered Bruce Pearl’s mind either. “There’s a lot of underdogs out here. A lot of second-chance kids. And we overcame.”
