Jabari Smith: KD Johnson will '100 percent' bounce back from Texas A&M performance

Like a true leader, Auburn’s Jabari Smith addressed KD Johnson‘s less than impressive performance Friday afternoon in the top-seeded Tigers fell to Texas A&M in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament 67-62. Johnson finished with no points on 0-14 shooting throughout the afternoon. Smith said this was a novelty occurrence that likely won’t happen again.

“I’m 100 percent sure he will be able to bounce back. Just an off shooting night,” Smith said. “I know how good he is. I know he going to get back in the gym and just get back to him making shots, getting downhill, finishing, making plays.

“So I’m not worried at all. He will be good.”

Johnson is Auburn’s second leading scorer (behind Smith’s 17.1) with 12.3 points per game. It was the first game all season that the transfer from Georgia was held scoreless.

While Johnson’s performance was less impressive than the rest, none of the Auburn Tigers’ performances in Friday’s loss were anything to write home about. Smith himself went 5-16 (3-10 from 3-point), though his 17 points and 9 rebounds made up for his lack of made baskets compared to the volume he shot them at. The Tigers missed 15 of their first 17 3-point attempts as well.

Walker Kessler was the lone Tiger that had a great game for Auburn. His 16 points, 9 rebounds and 4 blocks helped Auburn make its late run after trailing by 20. Wendell Green had two deep treys that cut the lead 60-55 late, but the Aggie lead was too much and the SEC regular season championship are now awaiting Selection Sunday to find out their fate in next week’s NCAA Tournament.

Texas A&M are still trying to secure its bid in the tournament. Win and they’re in — lose and it will be close, as they’re Joe Lunardi’s last team in, according to the final bracketology update before the tournament bracket is made official.

“It’s just so easy to go, ‘oh, A&M wanted it more — yeah, we came here and we didn’t really want it,’” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “… Give A&M credit. They played inspired. They played like their hair was on fire, because they’re trying to get into the NCAA tournament. 

“We wanted to win this championship. We wanted to build momentum going in, and we got beat by a really good team.”

While Auburn won’t be the conference tournament championships, they have won three of the last five SEC regular season titles and look to get back to the dominance they had during the regular season. Losing four of their last nine is reason for concern, but in March, the only thing that matters is being able to survive and advance.