Down goes to Auburn to be exposed to Florida

This could be a shock, but Rick Barnes says that winning the SEC tournament could be more difficult than winning the NCAA championship.

There may be no better teams in the country as Auburn and Florida in a row without a day to prepare for the final.

Tennessee used old-fashioned grit, more defensive determination and a flood of free throws to defeat Auburn (70-65) in the Sec 'semi-final on Saturday in Nashville. The Vols and Gators will compete for the first prize at 1 on Sunday afternoon. See the show on ESPN. The Bridgestone Arena is supposedly sold out.

In theory, the winner should receive a seed No. 1 for the NCAA Haupaße event – unless the selection committee has already decided and is for lunch.

Tennessee really wanted this second shot on Auburn. The Vols lost a hard street game with two points in January. They knew they were competitive and thought they could win. Her efforts were exemplary.

Tennessee fought with the Auburn superstar Johni Broome for a really good fight under and around the goal and still scored 23. Vol Center Felix Okpara became goalless and big reserve Cade Phillips, but they held Broome, 30 or 40, and disturbed his usual pass game.

Okpara defeated Broome 9: 7 on the rebound. Tennessee won the Team Backboard fight at eight. Tennessee got the knockout on the foul. It did 25 out of 27 free throws. Auburn tried only five less, but missed nine.

Zakai Zeigler led the Vols with 20 points and added four rebounds and four assists. He also blocked a shot and told the Tigers immediately that he was actually larger than 5-9.

Jordan Gainey scored 15 and had five rebounds, a really big one that led to two free throws. Chaz Lanier scored 10 in another hot start, became invisible too long and finally added a basket with 8:28. Credit also with defensive adaptation and greater effort.

Jahmai Mashack scored six points and met the two free throws with 14 seconds who achieved the victory. Would you like to talk about toughness? A slap in the face put the hut on the foul line.

Darlinstone Dubar scored six points. Barnes found two of his drives very valuable.

This was a hard game, a heavyweight struggle, exciting, entertaining, eight times with 18 lead changes. Tennesses great lead was 64-52. Auburn replied with a 10-0 run. The Vols contributed three incredible sales.

The tigers may have won in the last seconds, but Broome missed two free throws with 29.2 remaining.

Barnes seems to live from the spirited competition. He said he saw Teams Blitz catch in a bottle at this time of year. He said the Vols came to Nashville and thought they could win.

“We have a chance; We can play good basketball. I think many teams had this attitude. We all want to win a championship. They characterize championships.

“Every year a championship team is brought back to be recognized. Not so many runners -up. There is no doubt that we came here with the idea that we want to win a conference championship, but know that it will be really difficult. “

Auburn trainer Bruce Pearl was generous with praise.

“Tennessee is a great team. You play the right way. “

When asked “right way”, Pearl said: “It is character. It is culture. It is her belief. It is the men who train you, great coaches and great men … When I say that you play the right way, there are no problems. There is no extra -curricular. You understand how you play. Respect how you play. Respect how we play.”

Perle touched physicality.

“The games are physically because they are physical on the offensive, physical screens, they are physical. We have to do a better job in defense.

“The last time we played, they scored 51 points. This time they scored 70. We fouled too much. This is not a comment on acting. The office was fine. They scored 37 percent of their points on the foul line. That is on us.

“We have some inner shots and some free throws and some things you have to do not convert to win a close game.”

Barnes added the perspective.

“Zakai was in great command about himself because he is so competitive. If you could have been in the Huddle and hear him speak with his team, he was a big leader today … He had an outstanding presence. “

“At any time when we talked about the course, they calm down and do what we do,” said Gainey. “We made a few mistakes on the track, but we all stayed calm and made sure that we came to the next game.

“We had two sales in a row. The way we answered was really good. We didn't seem to be impressed. Nobody was panicked or nervous or something. It's okay, we are good, get a stopover and we will come back on the offensive and do what we have to do. “

Marvin West welcomes comments or questions from readers. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com