Auburn’s path to a top seed stays alive.
Dream seasons have an abundance of whimsy, magic, clutch play, and the unthinkable. Try as you might not; you never forget them or the inherent joy they brought you. Every victory, every big play is embedded in your mind forever. Then there’s the season Bruce Pearl’s Auburn (-16) men have had. A No. 1 overall ranking. Four wins over top-25 teams, including the perennial NBA-lite powerhouse, Kentucky. An undefeated (thus far) slate through what seems like a tougher gauntlet of an SEC than usual.
An unprecedented 19-game winning streak, by far the longest in the country.
And, of course, a clear favorite for a top seed — a No. 1 seed, to be precise — in next month’s NCAA tournament.
On Saturday afternoon, that dream (at least for a top seed) almost came to a screeching halt against, of all teams, last-place Georgia. Dreams often have a way of breaking your heart and ripping it out of your chest, don’t they?
With starting point guard and two-way senior glue guy Zep Jasper out due to COVID-19 protocols, Auburn found itself unexpectedly tested against the rival Bulldogs. Georgia may have shot poorly overall (just 40.7 percent), but shooting 20-of-29 from the stripe (thanks to overzealous defense on the part of the Tigers) meant a massive scrappy underdog stayed in the game.
Whatever plans Auburn had for the dance weren’t in jeopardy with one single loss after their wondrous season. But those aspirations for a No. 1 seed and, perhaps, ideally, an easier draw during March Madness? You better bet Pearl’s crew was nervously sweating every last drop out on the road against a rival.
What didn’t help Auburn’s undisciplined defense was a combined generous 13-of-35 shooting from two of the SEC’s best guards this year — K.D. Johnson and Wendell Green Jr. — that let Georgia fight their way back from a 15-point second-half deficit. In what is customary of these sorts of affairs that are supposed to be wire-to-wire blowouts, every gasp of air Auburn surrendered to Georgia, the choking Bulldogs took and filled their lungs with it to capacity like oxygen.
A powerhouse was now ripe for an upset. Somehow, someway, we had a tie 72-72 game in the final moments.
Enter Green Jr. and the power of redemption.
On a day where his shot would simply not fall, Green Jr. rescued the Tigers anyway. And in a game that will now receive a classic label, he took a momentary lapse in Georgia’s comeback attempt, grasped it tightly, and refused to let go.
The nail-biter win also fell right in line with Auburn men’s lore. It’s the first time the Tigers have started 22-1, tied with the 1998-1999 squad for the best start in program history. That team is the last and only Auburn men’s team ever to capture a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Pearl’s crew is quite obviously looking to add to that oh-so-exclusive pantheon. A team with a consensus +900 odds to win the national title (second only to Gonzaga) deserves as much.
There’s still about a month to go before March explodes with its usual chaos. Auburn could not afford a setback this devastating or this soon. But they’re back on track, and still on a path toward history, and their dream.
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