Nearly 16 years ago, an unlikely Auburn basketball team advanced to the Sweet 16 as a 10-seed. Placed in front of the Tigers were an immovable force — the Syracuse Orange.
This wasn’t any regular Syracuse team, either. A player named Carmelo Anthony was wrapping up his freshman year on an absolute tear. Ultimately, the Tigers luck ran out, and the team fell short by a point to the eventual champions.
Sixteen years later, Auburn is back and ready to take on another blue blood. Even though some of the circumstances around the game are the same, a lot has changed since 2003...
Bryce Brown was seven years old
Auburn sharpshooting senior was still in elementary school the last time Auburn was in this position. He still had a couple more 3s in front of him before he could don the orange and blue uniform.
Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal were still together
One of the NBA’s greatest "what if’s" is if Shaq and Kobe could’ve gotten along. In 2003 though, the duo was still intact having just wrapped up their three-peat.
Donald Trump was filming the Celebrity Apprentice
In 2003 current president Donald Trump was far from the oval office. Instead, he was months away from firing people on NBC in the hit smash show, “Celebrity Apprentice.”
"Agent Cody Banks" was the fourth-highest grossing movie
On the weekend of March 27th, while Auburn was gearing up to play Syracuse, millions of kids across the country were in line to see the cultural icon Frankie Muniz on the big screen. Can’t forget about Hilary Duff, either.
"In Da Club" by 50 Cent was the No. 1 song in the country
We now know 50 Cent as an IG troll and a businessman, but once upon a time, he made music. Cent was rising to national prominence, and his first No. 1 single was enough to push him into the mainstream. Safe to say this was on someone’s CD player in the locker room.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat did not exist.
In a world that lives on social media, it is hard to imagine a time without the big name platforms. Facebook launched in 2004, but at the time MySpace was the only notable available outlet, and was in its first year of existence.
The top-selling phone was the Nokia 1100.
iPhone or Android. That's the debate that seems to run on endlessly, but in 2003 there was no iPhone. There wasn't even a such thing as 4G or smartphones with a GPS.
Christiano Ronaldo hadn't yet played a game for Manchester United
Ronaldo is considered to be one of the greatest soccer players of all time, but in March of 2003 he wasn't the highly decorated player he is today. Ronaldo would debut in August of that year for Manchester United.
NASA's Spirit Rover was launched
NASA began its Mars Exploration Rover mission with the launch of Spirit in June 2003. The rover did not land on the planet until January of 2004, but it was the first attempted mission to Mars since 1997. Today, there are over 14 spacecrafts on the red planet.
Auburn ranked 106th in both 3-pointers attempted and 3-pointers made.
Auburn is known for living and dying by the three; the 2019 Tigers are first in made 3's with 421 and second in attempts with 1,113. In 2003, Auburn would finish with 198 made on 573 attempts. Bryce Brown alone currently has 131 made 3s. The game of basketball has certainly changed.
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Bryce Johnson is a junior Journalism major at Auburn University from Santa Monica, CA. He works as a sports writer for The Plainsman.
- @Brycejohnson310
- bzj0020@auburn.edu
