Bruce Pearl didn’t hold back on Saturday evening after he had just seen his team get blown out by LSU by a score of 104-80. The Auburn coach used the word disappointed so much you would have thought it was the word of the day.
“I got asked on the radio to sum it up a little bit: man, I’m disappointed,” Pearl said. “I thought we had a great game plan. I thought we had a good week of preparation. I thought we were excited about playing. I understand that LSU and coming up Florida, Tennessee, and Alabama – they are all playing to go the NCAA Tournament. Tonight was the first night that I saw it, that we just didn’t have that edge. I’m disappointed in our team. I’m disappointed in our play. I’m disappointed in our execution. I’m disappointed in our preparation. I’m disappointed that we didn’t compete. And I’m disappointed that guys weren’t excited about their matchup. Who wants Cam Thomas? Who wants him? Who wants Trendon Watford? Who wants Javonte Smart? There just was not any of that. That is a problem. As a result, we got whooped.”
The visiting Tigers had no fight in them as they fell behind early to LSU, trailing by as much as 22 points in the first half. The Bayou Bengals did whatever they wanted, especially in the paint as they bullied around the young Tigers on the boards and in one-on-one situations.
Pearl continued his message of disappointment to his team following the game.
“I want them to know I was disappointed,” he said. “When my dad would be upset with me, no big deal. But when he got disappointed in me, that bothered me. If my coaches were mad at me about something – and these guys are my best friends – and they were mad at me about something, we’d deal with it, whatever it was. But let’s say one of my assistants was disappointed in me. Man, that would hurt. That would hurt. I’m disappointed. I think we’re better than this. That was my message.”
Here is everything else Pearl said following the loss:
On if this game reminded him of the Gonzaga game…
“I don’t know if it reminded me of the Gonzaga game. I knew that Watford, Days, Smart and Thomas are all really good players. I just don’t think that they are much better than our players, but they played it. That’s why I’m disappointed.”
On getting the team excited for matchups with no postseason motivation…
“Javone Smart is a really good player. Cam Thomas is the fourth-leading scorer (in the country). Trendon Watford is from Birmingham, could’ve gone pro last year, but came back. There’s not much that I can do if that doesn’t excite you, right? I think part of it is the competitiveness, the pride. I was surprised that we weren’t locked in saying, ‘Hey, here’s what we’ve got to do.’ We just didn’t do it. I really thought we had a good plan. I thought we had a great, great plan, but we got beat 1-on-1. It was 1-on-1 and they beat us at every position.”
On addressing the team’s lack of motivation…
“It’s a matter of pride and our team has gotten better throughout the season, but these other teams have gotten better, too. Obviously, these teams are playing with an edge, playing to get ready for postseason. Every game is life or death for them right now, so I’ve got to keep it real and just be honest with our guys. When we’re not locked in, when we don’t compete, when we get pushed around like that, physically – Florida’s going to push us around, Tennessee’s going to push us around. Our big guys are young and they’re not physical enough. We don’t have enough physicality and toughness, and that really showed tonight.”