What Bruce Pearl said about Texas’ late run against Auburn men’s basketball
Auburn men’s basketball is on a seven-game winning streak, ranks No. 2 in the AP Poll and is in line for the No. 1 spot if it takes care of business against South Carolina on Saturday.
Everything isn’t perfect, though, highlighted by a late run the Tigers gave up in their 87-82 win over Texas on Tuesday.
In three of Auburn’s last four games, the Tigers have held large leads in the second half, but late runs have made the results closer than what the rest of the game would suggest.
“I’d say the late run against Texas was against our starters, that might be a concern. Some of the late runs prior to that, I think, and you can correct me if I’m wrong, were against the bench,” Pearl said Thursday. “So, I don’t think there’s a connection. It’s a 40-minute game. That’s the connection. Teams aren’t going anywhere.”
Against Purdue, Auburn led by 29 with 1:41 to go, but a late 11-0 run made the margin just 18 at the final buzzer. That run came with Auburn’s reserve unit in the game.
In Auburn’s Southeastern Conference opener against Missouri, it led by as many as 26 points in the second half and 24 points with 8:32 to go, but won by 16. It didn’t impact the game much, but the final stretch featured some sloppiness that Pearl would like to avoid.
“I think that I would say that what we’ve done offensively in a couple of those games where we may have relaxed a little bit because of the lead and may have thrown some passes and done some things where we should have just finished basic plays and did not, and then all of a sudden, the margin shrunk,” Pearl said.
Auburn’s 87-82 win over Texas was the most concerning of the three games, though, leading by 21 with 12:28 to go in the game, but allowing a 40-19 run by the Longhorns that cut the lead to three in the final 30 seconds.
Against Texas, Pearl acknowledged some of Auburn’s self-inflicted wounds, but also credited the Longhorns for what they did to come back in the second half.
Texas’ Arthur Kaluma scored a career-high 34 points on 12-for-16 shooting from the field against Auburn, also making five of his six 3-pointers. That’s not a performance you’ll see every night, but Kaluma isn’t the only player Auburn will play who’s capable of that.
“That’s a great lesson for both teams, right? That game was undecided,” Pearl said after beating Texas. “We turned the ball over a little bit, we had some wasted possessions offensively. We had a couple guys who didn’t play their best. Yet we were still able to get a win on the road.”
Auburn’s next game is against South Carolina, a group that looks like one of the weaker teams in the SEC, but isn’t incapable of causing problems for good teams.
“Well, I live by the slippery rock theory, and that basically is that South Carolina beat Clemson. Clemson beat Kentucky. Kentucky beat Duke, and Duke beat us,” Pearl said. “And so, by virtue of the slippery rock theory, we’ve got to be ready to go.”
That matchup between the Tigers and Gamecocks will tip off at noon on Saturday and will be streaming live on SEC Network.
Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m
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