Winning When A Team Should Not

Against NKU, we legitimately could have lost. Our best player is out. Out rebounded on both ends of the court. More turnovers than my grandma ever baked. But great, championship teams find ways to win games like this. Sharp hit critical 3’s. Shead took over the point and Jarace looked more like a lottery pick. Championship teams will find ways to win like the Cougars did against NKU.

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We also got lucky the NKU went into their “jack up a three” offense. They should have let their guards drive to the basket on us.

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NKU didn’t play like a 16 seed, they had a good game plan. Going into jacking up 3’s mode skewed the rebounding numbers and probably cost them any chance of winning the game. They were getting long rebounds.

Every tournament there seems to be that one game where you feel like you might have gotten away with one. The Rutgers game comes to mind. You don’t get style points in the tournament, You get W’s and L’s. We got a W, so we get to fight another day.

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they were successful because we had to respect those long a$$ 3 ball attempts, coogs had to play defense well away from the basket, that opens up space
also they were setting up farther away from the basket for those rebounds than our guys were….because they knew the area they would come to from experience…this was a well planned well coached attack
auburn will turn the ball over and take a bunch of bad shots that we can rebound …we may need bowser in the second half to body broome and beat him up…block him from the rim …it will a better match up
i think barkley was right….sasser shouldn’t have played and shouldn’t vs auburn

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Just like Virginia in 2019. None of their wins were pretty and they could of lost in any round. But somehow they just kept going.

It would be smart to sit but he can’t. As a senior who came back for this moment it’s now or never for him.

Remember that Barkley is an Auburn alumnus.

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He actually had Bama v Houston in the final with Bama winning. What happened to him being a homer?

Couldn’t agree more at the time but in hindsight, if they had hit just 1 or 2 of those three’s, with that crowd behind them….

Lucky? That was their coaches strategy

Exactly. I believe they were 8th in their league for points in the paint.

I’m trying to figure out how we “got outrebounded on both ends” but managed to outrebound the other team by 9. :thinking:

Our defensive rebounding was dominant. They really only got any offensive boards when their shots bounced back to the top of the key. Our turnovers and lack of of turning them over is what kept the game close.

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We won by 9. I never really thought we were in danger of losing. They never had a lead for any amount of significance.

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You are correct. Please forgive my dyslexic moment.

Sometimes I guess that can be so. Get a good play, a lift, and enthusiasm and second wind may overcome!

Kinda confirms what I was thinking that their plan was to get back on defense as quickly as possible. I thought they were exceptional, almost always ready for us. Gotta give up offensive rebounds to do that.

It was his decision but according to our trainer it was a staff decision to sit him after he came out after playing. 14 minutes in first half.

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