Bruce Pearl’s Auburn machine had won 14 games in a row after that early season loss at Duke.
Then former Tigers assistant Todd Golden brought his Florida machine to the Plains on Feb. 8 and handed Auburn a stinging 90-81 defeat.
Florida trailed by 10 points early in the SEC showdown, then built a 10-point lead by the end of the first half before holding off an Auburn rally. Walter Clayton Jr. led the way for the Gators as he did in most games this season, scoring 19 points, and Alex Condon added 17 as No. 6 UF took out the top-ranked Tigers on their home floor.
The Gators held Auburn to just 32% shooting from long distance, with the Tigers making just 7 of 22, and Auburn star Johni Broome’s 18 points and 11 rebounds weren’t nearly enough. It was the Tigers’ first SEC loss of the season and their only one until suffering 2 defeats in the final week of the regular season.
Auburn went on to win the SEC regular-season title anyway, with Florida finishing second, so the Tigers got the last laugh in that sense. But now, almost exactly 2 months later, Pearl will get another shot at Florida as the teams collide in the Final Four semifinals on Saturday night in San Antonio. Pearl, whose team is a 2.5-point underdog to the Gators, per BetMGM, was asked during Thursday’s press conferences to explain exactly what happened on that forgettable February day.
“I thought Florida outplayed us,” he said flatly. “I mean, I thought it was a Florida win rather than (an) Auburn loss. I did feel at the time that we had some fatigue that was sort of setting in a little bit. We really hadn’t had much of a grind point.”
Pearl wasn’t mincing words a few months later. He was giving credit where it was due.
“Florida won the game and controlled (it). We got off to a really good start, but they won the game the way they’ve been winning games, banged 13 threes, had 22 assists, their front line played with tremendous physicality and outplayed us. If that’s the case, they’re going to beat us again,” he admitted. “They scored 90. So, their depth I think was a factor. So, yeah, we recognize that there are a number of things that we didn’t do that they did that we’re going to have to fix this time around if we’re going to have a chance to beat them.”
That second chance will come Saturday night in San Antonio, with a trip to the national title game on Monday night on the line.
Bruce Pearl shares what went wrong in Auburn’s regular-season loss to Florida Saturday Down South.
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