Point guard Jared Harper and the 4th-seeded Auburn Tigers are enjoying their cross-country visit to San Diego, California for the opening rounds of the 2018 NCAA Tournament.
Not because of the trip to the San Diego Zoo or other Californian attractions, although that might be contributing to the cause. The Tigers are feeling good because their shot is feeling good.
Practicing throughout the week at San Diego State University’s Viejas Arena on the campus of SDSU, Auburn has been feeling as reputable as its 4-seed label, according to Harper.
“It’s a great shooting gym,” Harper said Thursday in San Diego. “My shot felt good. I saw a couple of my other teammates, their shots felt good. We’ll see tomorrow how we shoot the ball.”
Auburn was also hot pregame in its most recent outing: a double-digit loss as the 1 seed in the SEC Tournament to Alabama. The defeat featured a season-low 22 percent shooting clip in the second half from the conference’s leading offense, the lowest in a half this season for the Tigers.
Since that game, the Crimson Tide have been on a tear, using the resume-building win to catapult into a first round victory over Virginia Tech in the NCAA Tournament.
In the week since their heartbreaking loss, the Tigers have done a lot of thinking, and resting.
“We were definitely able to reset and recover our bodies a little bit,” Harper said. “This is a long season. Going into the tournament, we’ve been able to practice, we’ve been able to look at our scouts and get closer to how we played earlier in the year.”
Seeming at one point indomitable to the effects of an extensive conference schedule, Auburn basketball hopes to play in March as it did midseason. After reaching a peak of 23-3 (11-2 SEC) after a home win over Kentucky on Valentine’s Day, the eventual SEC regular season champion Tigers lost four of their next six.
A large part of the falloff was due to starting center and SEC shot-blocking leader Anfernee McLemore’s season-ending ankle injury in the next game.
“We clearly aren’t as good without Anfernee,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “At the same time, I want them to think back to this is still a team that won the SEC. This is still a team that has eight players that are all capable of playing well.
“Look, we had two or three guys play well against Alabama and nobody else. You can’t win like that. We need the eight guys out there planning to step up and be able to play.”
In the SEC Tournament loss to Collin Sexton and the Tide, Bryce Brown, Mustapha Heron and Desean Murray all scored in double figures, but the remaining Tigers posted only 19 points on 6-of-24 shooting.
Against a first round opponent like 13 seed College of Charleston, which boasts a trio of scorers averaging 17-plus a game, Auburn will need a more balanced effort. That starts with Harper’s maestro mentality.
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“I think our team has been working well together,” Harper said. “Everyone’s been working since we lost in the SEC Tournament, so I’m confident we’re going to be able to make shots and make plays. I think I have the easy part of getting the ball to people and they have the hard part of making shots.”
A day after a colossal 4 vs. 13 upset in Buffalo vs. Arizona, Auburn isn’t just looking to avoid a first-round exit in its first trip back to the Big Dance in 15 years. They’re looking to bust some brackets.
“I still feel like we can have a run in this tournament and be a major factor, compete,” Auburn guard Bryce Brown said. “We just can’t look forward to any particular game. We have to take it one game at a time. Every team is going to be good. It’s the 68 best teams in the country, so we have to look at every team like they’re just as good as any other team.”
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