Auburn's Comeback Falls Short in the Iron Bowl of Basketball

After battling back from a 14-point halftime deficit, Auburn fell just short in Tuscaloosa, losing the IBOB 79-75. Despite some issues with the lights early on, Auburn was firing on all cylinders out of the gate, but that run was short-lived. Alabama spent the last 15 minutes of the first half raining three's, and Auburn failed to take advantage of the opportunities provided in the second half to regain control. It was a disappointing loss.

That being said, Auburn is still in fantastic shape. This one hurts because you never want to lose to your rival, but it has been proven time and time again this year how difficult it is to win on the road in the SEC. Just two nights ago, Kentucky took a 17-point beating at unranked South Carolina. Tennessee, who looks to be just about unstoppable at this point in the season, lost by 5 to unranked Mississippi State on the road. It doesn't matter who you are or who your opponent is, winning on the road is a tall task. Those losses do not define a team, and this loss will not define Auburn unless we allow it to.

Auburn had plenty of opportunities to win this game. Tre Donaldson stole the ball from Aaron Estrada and dunked it in transition to give Auburn the lead midway through the second half, and at that point, I thought Auburn might regain control. We just didn't finish defensive possessions when we needed to, and we didn't make open shots. You never want to lose a game where you are given the opportunity to win.

Before I get to my observations, I want to point something out about fans and how they handle losses. Regardless of sport, team, and level, every losing fanbase always seems to find a way to blame losses on officiating. Here is the reality. Every game is going to have controversial calls. Some of those controversial calls will go in favor of your team, and some of those calls will go in favor of the opponent. If you are having to rely on those calls going in your favor to win games, you are going to lose far more often than not. Good teams don't have to rely on officiating to win games. As I mentioned above, Auburn had plenty of opportunities to win last night. Sure, there were some questionable calls, but the reason we ultimately lost was because we didn't do what we needed to do as a team to win the game.

Here are a couple of thoughts from last night...

-Johni Broome undeniably played his best game of the year last night. 25 points, 14 rebounds, 5 blocks. Had it not been for foul trouble, he could have played even better. I was happy to see him show up in such a big game. I think he's underperformed at times this year, but maybe this performance will give him the confidence he needs to make a leap and take over this team.

-Jaylin Williams, who I have said is the x-factor of this team, shot 3-9 and scored only seven points last night. I expected him to be one of the guys we leaned on in this one, as vets are usually the most comfortable in hostile environments. He looked surprisingly uncomfortable for the majority of this game. He has to show up in these road games. It is not a coincidence that we lose when he underperforms.

-I really thought Tre Donaldson should have closed the game last night. He provided the spark we needed to overcome the first-half deficit, but Bruce chose to stick with Aden Holloway down the stretch. Aden played his worst game of the season last night, shooting 0-7 from the field and finishing with only 2 points. He is still young and hasn't played in many of these hostile environments, and until he is comfortable handling the ball with the game on the line, Tre needs to be the one to close out in close contests.

-Auburn shot 5-25 (20%) from three, and we lost by four points. I'm not sure if I should be upset that we didn't try and get to the rim more, or if I should be excited that we can shoot so terribly and still have a chance to win on the road against a solid opponent. We took good shots, we just didn't make them. Shots will fall in future contests as long as our guys continue to get to their spots.

-Mark Sears got way too many straight-line left-handed drives. We switched many ball-screens, so he got a favorable matchup against Cardwell and Broome quite often. He is certainly quicker than both of these guys, but that is not an excuse for allowing him to get to his strong hand over and over again. In the next matchup, I want to see us force him to his right.

-Auburn got plenty of huge stops on defense but failed to complete the stop with a rebound. At one point after we had taken a lead in the second half, Cardwell got a huge block, but everybody stood around and watched and Alabama got an offensive rebound and a kick out to a three. Broome had a great contest and a stop on Mark Sears on one of the final possessions, but instead of getting a body on someone, everyone stood around and Grant Nelson got an uncontested putback dunk. I really hope Bruce Pearl harps on box-outs these next couple of practices.

Auburn is now 0-3 in Quad 1 matchups, and many people are using this record to try and make the claim that Auburn is a fraudulent and overrated team. What those people won't tell you is that Auburn has not yet played a Quad 1 game at home. One of those losses was to Baylor in the season opener, and two of those losses were on the road at App State and at Alabama, two really tough matchups. "But Will, the SEC and NCAA Tournaments aren't played at home. You have to win in a neutral site." Yes, I know that. This team is not done growing. All three losses have been very winnable games, and if we hit our stride at the right time like we did in 2019, this team will do incredible things in the postseason. I am not at all concerned with our Quad 1 record in January. I see the potential in this team, we just have to reach it and stay at that level away from Neville.

I will also add that I think we would beat both Alabama and App State at a neutral site, and I think if we played Baylor again today at the same arena, we win that one as well. I have tons of confidence in this team.

Speaking of Quad 1 games, we have the opportunity to win one on Saturday at Mississippi State. I am very excited to see how this team bounces back after a tough loss. Mississippi State is a tough place to play, and it will take an all-around solid effort from our guys to leave with a win. I know that this team does not have any quit in them, and I think they will be ready to play come Saturday.