'We weren't overwhelmed by anything...': Auburn's insanely tough schedule leads to Final Four berth

ATLANTA, Ga. — Facing the Big Ten tournament champions and Big Ten regular season champions in back-to-back games was light work for this Auburn team.

That’s to be expected when you play the toughest schedule in program history and one of the toughest schedules in college basketball history.

“We weren’t overwhelmed by anything that Creighton, Michigan or Michigan State had because we had already played Duke, Houston, Florida, some of the best teams in college basketball throughout the year. It wasn’t much of a surprise what they threw at us. Our guys were battle tested and obviously found a way to beat three really good teams,” associate head coach Steven Pearl said.

There was 1-seeds Houston and Duke in the non-conference, along with 3-seed Iowa State, 4-seed Purdue, 8-seed Memphis and 11-seed North Carolina. Auburn went 5-1 in those games.

“At that point, you’re trying to get prepared for the SEC. Then, the combination of that and the SEC should get you ready to make a run in the NCAA Tournament. It did just that,” Pearl said.

“Obviously, it was very ambitious. It was a little scary, honestly, because if you lose a bunch of those games, you may lose confidence. Our guys did an unbelievable job handling a really difficult schedule. For us to be 32-5 at this point is kind of ridiculous.”

Then there was the SEC gauntlet that featured 18 total games, 16 of which were against teams that made the NCAA Tournament. Winning the SEC regular season championship against the toughest SEC that’s ever been was beyond remarkable.

Auburn racked up a 16-5 record in Quad 1 games before the tournament. That record is now 19-5. And from February 1 until this very moment, the Tigers have played nothing but tournament teams. That’s 17 straight games and counting.

“You can’t compare it to anything because we’ve never done that before. I never did as a player and we’ve never done it as a program. It’s a grind. It allowed us to do what we’ve done these last couple of weeks,” Pearl said.

“There’s been no breathing room,” senior Dylan Cardwell added. “I called my girlfriend this morning and I was like, ‘man, I’m excited for after the game so we can just take a day to just breathe. This season, you could not breathe. Every single team has been so great, so competitive, and it’s been really tough.”

December 8 until December 17, a span of three games, is the only multi-game stretch during the entire season in which Auburn didn’t play a tournament team. At every other point this season, Auburn never went more than one game between playing a tournament team.

“I feel like we’ve been through it all,” Denver Jones said. “I feel like coach prepared us as well for this situation as anyone. He’s prepared us for these big games.”

Miles Kelly came to Auburn to win a championship and make a Final Four. Given his decision to transfer in, he welcomed the additional challenges, if it meant accomplishing great things down the road.

“It seems like every game has been big. I knew we could be something special. Houston set the tone for that,” Kelly said. I really think we flipped the switch and really tapped into our potential of how great we could be. We came to that realization because of our schedule.”

The grind culminated in playing one of the best defenses in college basketball in Michigan State. Most teams wouldn’t be prepared for a defense that caliber, but not Auburn. Why? They have already played Houston, the nation’s most-efficient defense.

“They’re talking about Michigan State’s defense and I’m like, ‘yo, we beat Houston at Houston.’ We’re not going to see a better defense than that. I knew going into the game we’re good.”

Most don’t quite understand the grind this season has been.

Between lengthy Bruce Pearl film sessions, to the championship-level attention to detail that goes in during practices as Pearl and his staff prepare the team, to then executing the game plan game after game, there is more work than you can imagine that goes on before the Tigers ever set foot on the court to play the game.

And Auburn went through that process at a very high level over and over and over again this season.

“I mean, this is our job,” Kelly said. “We’re student-athletes, but this is basically a job. We spend all day in the gym, watching film in the classroom. We spend a lot of time on our craft and working at that.”

Pearl added, “for bigger games, it’s easier to get your guys locked in. But, when it’s game after game after game after game, that’s when it becomes a grind and a process. Our guys respect everyone, but they fear no one. I thought our guys have done a great job all year of, for the most part, locking into all the tendencies of what the other team likes to do and taking them away.

“I think our guys have seen when we didn’t accomplish those things, we’ve lost. And I think they trust what we’re telling them on the game plans and these scouts. It’s obviously allowed us to win 32 games during a really difficult schedule.”

There were doubters, especially after Auburn lost three of their last four games going into the tournament. But Steven Pearl, the staff and players certainly weren’t among them.

“I thought people pushed the panic button a little too soon on us,” Pearl said. “We lost to three really good teams. Our guys did a great job of staying the course, staying composed, trusting what we do, and it obviously led to us winning four games.”