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A spirit that is not afraid

Stress, spoilers and Stanford: How Auburn women's basketball avoided ESPN's bracket leak

<p>Women's Basketball, NCAA Selection Show on Monday, March 18, 2019, in Auburn, Ala. Cat Wofford/Auburn Athletics</p>

Women's Basketball, NCAA Selection Show on Monday, March 18, 2019, in Auburn, Ala. Cat Wofford/Auburn Athletics

Selection Monday is stressful enough with teams wondering who they will play in the NCAA Tournament and teams wondering if they made the tournament at all. 

To top it off, on this year's Selection Monday, the bracket was leaked early by ESPN at around 3 p.m. CST. Selection Monday, which usually airs at 6 p.m. CST, was then rushed and broadcasted at 4 p.m. following the bracket leak. 

“In working with the NCAA to prepare for tonight’s Women’s Selection Special we received the bracket, similar to years past," ESPN wrote in a statement. "In the midst of our preparation, the bracket was mistakenly posted on ESPNU. We deeply regret the error and extend our apology to the NCAA and the women’s basketball community. We will conduct a thorough review of our process to ensure it doesn’t happen in the future. We will now broadcast the full bracket at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN2, and the regularly-scheduled show on ESPN at 7 p.m.”

Auburn had the additional stress of being included in the "Debatable Eight," the selection committee's final eight teams who are vying to make it in as the last four teams in. The "Debatable Eight" which released on Sunday, was making an already long Monday even longer for the Tigers. 

Once the bracket was leaked though, all bets were off as teams could now find out where and who they were playing. For the "Debatable Eight" teams — Arkansas, Auburn, Indiana, Ohio, Princeton, Tennessee, TCU and UCF — it became a mad dash to find out who would claim these final four spots.

Auburn head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy was in the middle of running practice when the leak sent social media into a frenzy.

She was quickly alerted by director of operations Bianca Webb: "Coach I’d really hate to bother you right now, but it has gotten leaked."

Williams-Flournoy had no idea what Webb was talking about. She asked her to clarify.

"The bracket has gotten released, we know where we’re going, and it’s coming on at four o’clock," Webb told Williams-Flournoy.

Coach Flo had to think fast.

“It’s 3:55, let’s go!” Williams-Flournoy said. 

While Coach Flo gathered the team together, hustling them into the locker room to tune into the 4 p.m. selection show, senior Janiah McKay was confused by the practice's early end.

“We were actually at practice, and Coach Flo was like go to the locker room, we were like what’s happening," McKay said.

In the locker room, Coach Flo made sure the players didn't get on their phones or receive any outside information.

Sophomore Unique Thompson, who will be getting her first NCAA Tournament experience this year, was relieved — she thought practice was over early. 

"So we were all standing at the cooler talking, and then (Coach Flo) was like, 'Go to the locker room,'" Thompson said. "So we all just looked and was like she’s kidding and then I was like, 'Y'all hurry up before she changes her mind cause y'all know practice has been so tough.'"

Even though the Tigers may have found out prematurely and unexpectedly — crammed together on a couch in the locker while they were supposed to enjoy it at a scheduled event in Jordan-Hare Stadium that evening — it was a stressful but joyous occasion for Auburn once the Chicago region popped onto the screen.

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Ten-seed Auburn will face off against 7-seed BYU in the Round of 64 on Saturday in Stanford, California, at 2:30 p.m. CST. 

Auburn is in the midst of its most successful season under Coach Flo with a program-record six SEC road wins, a winning SEC record for the first time since 2009 and the most regular season wins under Coach Flo with 21. 


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