Everything Bruce Pearl said after Auburn's clutch NCAA Tournament win over Iowa

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Bruce Pearl improved his NCAA Tournament record to 7-3 while at Auburn with a 83-75 win over 8-seed Iowa on Thursday night inside Legacy Arena.

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Here’s everything Pearl said to the media following the Tigers’ 11th straight opening round win in the NCAA Tournament.

Bruce Pearl celebrates with his family after Auburn’s win. #MarchMadness @AuburnLiveOn3 pic.twitter.com/3JIf2RTiUq

— Justin Hokanson (@_JHokanson) March 17, 2023

COACH PEARL: You walk in Auburn’s locker room and there’s a sign that says “AU, make history.” And we knew going into this game that Auburn and our basketball program had won 10 straight first-round games but this match against Iowa was not going to be easy. But we wanted to be able to add to the history.

So I believe that’s now 12 straight first-round wins for Auburn. So congrats to all the coaches and players in our program that have won that.

I’m happy for my upperclassmen. I thought the starters stepped up and played really, really well.

Tonight, Al, a tough matchup and he won his matchup which was really important for us tonight. I’m really happy for how Al. He’s playing his best basketball right now on a big stage.

And K.D. is just giving such a spark coming off the bench. Wendell was great for a general. I thought our bench played really well and lifted us up.

Our speed and quickness, obviously, was a factor. Defensively Iowa is the number three offensive efficiency team in the country. And to hold them to 75 points or at least 26 in the first half was a great effort.

Q. Coach, I wanted to ask you about Berman’s defense. I know you had him on Kris Murray, an All-Big Ten. I thought he did a nice job defending. Talk about Lior and the job he did tonight.

COACH PEARL: We have confidence in Lior. The defense that we played tonight, we did a lot of switching. And so when Murray was at the top of the floor he was guarded by guards. When he got down to the bottom, we were hoping to try to get a big on him. I thought as best we could, I thought it disrupted Iowa a little bit.

But I do think that run with K.D. and Lior and Tre, and the bench being in there, Chris Moore is in a regular rotation with us. He goes out with his shoulder. All of a sudden Al Flanigan has to play some 4 — he’s not played there all year long. And guys are filling in spots.

But I think that’s what a team is all about. And we were able to overcome some real challenges. Jaylin Williams gets in foul trouble. There were a lot of things that happened that could have set us back.

But Johni Broome was too dominant inside. K.D. and Tre making all those shots in the second half. Al doing the job with Johni on the rebounding, not letting Iowa dominate on the glass — they beat us on the glass, but they didn’t dominate.

Q. Bruce says it all the time, you win late by getting to the free-throw line and getting stops. How proud are you for these guys to get that in a tournament environment especially after they cut it to four?

COACH PEARL: I told our guys it’s going to get down to single digits now. Iowa was down big at home to Michigan State and they came back won that thing. We knew they’d come back.

Look, it got a little tight there for a second. And I asked the guys, in a timeout, I said, look, we’re up four, five, six, there’s six minutes left to go in the game. I said if we could be in that situation before the game, would you take it? I think we would have taken it.

Let’s just calm down. They made some shots and we got stops. And we got rebounds and got some 50/50 balls.

Our speed and quickness was a factor. And you could sort of see Big Ten/SEC from a standpoint of two different conferences. We aren’t much more athletic or faster than many teams in the SEC. We’re not. But tonight we were. Iowa was bigger, a little bit more skilled, shot it better from 3. They had some physical advantages.

But our speed and quickness was a factor tonight. Really helped us on the defensive end and attacking the rim. That’s why I think they played so much zone.

Q. Talk about Tre Donaldson’s night, getting the three 3s there, especially with what’s he’s been through?

COACH PEARL: Tre Donaldson is a freshman that’s played about ten minutes a game. He’s clearly been Wendell Green’s backup. He’s going to be a really good player in the future. But he’s got a role to play.

But because he was a high school football strong safety and one of the top strong safeties in the country, he could have gone anywhere he wanted to play football. He’s got a toughness about him, a swag, confidence, not afraid. Absolutely not afraid of the moment.

And he did not look or act like a freshman at all. And I think that — I know that you’re in a game like that. Coach McCaffery has to be looking down the bench who is this kid. We don’t need this.

But it’s very, very important that your bench plays well in the postseason, I think.

Q. How would you best describe K.D.’s persona on the court?

COACH PEARL: Unpredictable. You know? But right now he’s in a good spot. He’s really good in the locker room. He’s really good with his teammates. He’s a really good friend to a lot of the guys. He plays with a lot of emotion, a lot of passion. And he giveth and he taketh away. And he’s been givething more lately.

Q. You talked all week about the ability for this crowd to play a role. Is it sounding like Neville Arena in there tonight? What role did the crowd play in the second half?

COACH PEARL: It played a great role. But, guys, this is Birmingham, Alabama. This is football country. And we dominate. And I’m really proud of that.

But we looked like a basketball state today. Alabama took care of their business today early on. They filled the building.

Auburn played a really good team out of the Big Ten. And we played well and we filled our building. And I think it makes a statement about basketball in the state of Auburn and the great job that people here in Birmingham did putting this tournament together.

Q. What was the strategy for you all defensively against the 3 because they didn’t shoot the 3 particularly well? Secondarily it’s not going to show up on the stats but the minutes from Yohan Treore tonight?

COACH PEARL: We did a lot of switching on some of their actions to keep our guards up and our bigs down. As a result, we weren’t having it get over the top of flares or chase pindowns. And it was good. It was effective.

The key, ball pressure’s important. Iowa got, they made seven. I bet you two or three, at least, were off offensive rebounds. That’s dangerous. When they make eight or more — I think they’re 11-2. So keeping them under eight was definitely a number.

And Yo was in there because Chris (indiscernible) tweaked his shoulder again. And Jaylin was in foul trouble. So Yo was ready to go. He did a nice job.

Q. The beauty of this tournament is anything can happen. That’s what makes it so fun. So what can you say just about success and succeeding in this tournament, how much of it is the guys on the floor and the talent versus just being locked in and having the right mentality to withstand this tournament?

COACH PEARL: You’ve got to have both. You have to have dudes. Allen Flanigan is a really good player, who affects the game defensive, rebounding, making shots. He got to the rim. So happy for him on the big stage. He looked really good.

Johni Broome is an old-school, old-fashioned center that can stretch you a little bit and had big blocks, big defensive plays. You have to have players more than anything else.

But I do think our kids are proud of our basketball program. And they recognize the history. And there’s probably nobody in the media happier tonight than Charles Barkley and those guys are all going to be talking about how Charles will be happy on the set with his balloons and his tiger. Let him talk a little bit of smack.

Q. Auburn basketball has made a lot of statements over the last six or so years. How is this statement different with all the spotlights this year on Alabama and their run? You had it last year, for you guys to step up on the stage the way you did tonight?

COACH PEARL: We’ve played a really tough schedule. And we’ve lost to a lot of teams that were favored and teams that were better than us. And that’s one thing I told our guys.

But to give our guys confidence I had to remind them we played Alabama for 85 minutes. We led for 67 of those minutes, both at home and Tuscaloosa. So we’ve giving them confidence we can play.

We beat Tennessee and lost by three at Tennessee. Even though we’ve lost some games I was proud of our guys for competing. So I want to make sure our guys knew they were good enough.

And you know what? We really don’t pay much attention to what Alabama is doing. And they’re a great team. They’re extremely well-coached. They’re really talented. They play the right way.