NASHVILLE, Tenn. — What if I told you that Auburn’s best half of basketball in recent memory happened with Jared Harper on the bench?
Just over two minutes into the game, Harper went up for a chase-down block but was called for his second foul. This didn’t seem like a good sign for Auburn as they have usually struggled to perform well without Harper in the past.
Bruce Pearl called upon backup junior college transfer J’von McCormick to then lead the offense against an arguable No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
“I knew I had to just come in, step up and be ready for my moment,” McCormick said. “I always knew I belonged here. It’s just I always have confidence in myself and my teammates that has just brought me a long way.”
Pearl had planned on limiting Harper’s minutes to take off some of the heavy workload he had taken on in the four straight games in the tournament, but never thought he would have to resort to only playing two minutes in the first half.
“I was only on planning playing Jared a maximum of 32 minutes today,” Pearl said. “But he got into foul trouble, so we went with J’von. He had to carry the ball, and he did, did a great job. It was a good matchup from that standpoint because we knew that J’von could get downhill against Tennessee. It was going to be a problem for Tennessee’s bigger guards to stay in front.”
McCormick was able to navigate the offense with precision and poise but with a different style than Harper runs it.
Harper has a more perimeter-oriented style with the ball in hand a lot, while McCormick is more athletic and a downhill-type of player who loves attacking the rim.
The difference in style let Auburn shift from a team that relied on 3-pointers to a team that focused on getting to the basket more and forcing turnovers.
“Just giving teams different looks,” Harper said about the dynamic of the different styles. “He’s an extremely fast player. He’s able to get downhill. He’s able to finish through contact. So, when he’s able to do that, he makes us a better team. They’re probably going to close out to me closest to the perimeter and that just gives us a different aspect of different weapons we have.”
Yes, he's a more downhill and drive-to-the-basket player, but McCormick has shown the ability to excel at other facets, as well. McCormick has shot just under 60 percent from 3 this season. The only problem is, he does not shoot very many with only 16 on the year.
“All year long he ain’t been shooting that many 3’s at the beginning of the season,” said Samir Doughty. “All year long his [percentage] has been 50, 60, 70 … He really doesn’t miss, honestly.
“He’s so good at driving downhill that we don’t even want him to shoot that many 3s because he can get in the lane anytime he wants, at will, against any guard in the country but he’s also a good 3-point shooter.”
During the 18 minutes McCormick was on the floor in the first half, Auburn went on an 18-1 run spanning from 9:06 to 2:54 to put Auburn up by 13. McCormick posted a plus/minus of 11 during that first half stretch.
“[His performance] was huge,” said Bryce Brown. “J’von, actually one of his best games he played for us, defensively, offensively. He chipped in there, got some steals, found his teammates on a break. With Jared not being out there the whole first half, he had a lot on his shoulders to carry over. He did very well.”
McCormick, hailing from Lee College, has been behind Harper all season and up until today, not a real focal point of the offense.
The junior guard only averages 3.5 points, 2.5 field goal attempts and 11 minutes per game.
But when it mattered most, he was the star of the show and that is something Pearl has known McCormick has had in him all along.
That is why it seems Pearl is always hardest on McCormick about his play, so hard, maybe, that Pearl gets an earful about it at home.
“My wife gets mad at me not very often because of basketball,” Pearl said. “But she’s always yelling at me: ‘Why are you yelling at J’von so much?’ And the reason I am yelling at him so much is because I know what he is capable of.”
McCormick finally showed what he could do when the full control of the offense was his responsibility and that has earned him the praise from his senior teammates.
“It’s a good thing that we have J’von. It’s a good thing that we have Jared. They’re both two cold-blooded point guards,” said Horace Spencer. “J’von is a great player. You know, with him coming in, doing what he did, that was very important and a very key part of the game. Tonight is probably the best night he’s had and I’m proud of him for it. As a senior, I look to him and I see the potential that he possibly has.”
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