Bruce Pearl explains use of three guard lineup late in Mississippi State win
Auburn didn’t just escape but conquered in their OT win against Mississippi State Wednesday night. The triumph clinched the regular-season SEC title and was the result of a strategic move by Bruce Pearl during the extra frame that led way to a 20-7 period for the Tigers.
Pearl had not been getting much from either of his wings–Allen Flanigan and Devan Cambridge combined for a 3/13 performance from the field and 1/8 night from beyond the arc–and needed to do something.
Anything.
So he deployed all three of his rotation guards (Wendell Green Jr., Zep Jasper, K.D. Johnson) at the same time along with the frontcourt 1-2 punch of Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler:
Bruce Pearl on Auburn's three-guard lineup toward the end of last night's game: "When you lose a 19-point lead, you, as a coach, start throwing stuff into the wind and see what sails."
— Nathan King (@NathanKing247) March 3, 2022
That’s coaching in a nutshell. Good coaching, anyway. You make adjustments, mix and match your personnel, and find the right combination on the court.
Bruce Pearl may have unlocked Auburn’s best lineup at the perfect time
There’s one game left on the regular season schedule against South Carolina, and it could determine whether Auburn has to share this season’s regular season conference championship with the likes of Kentucky, Tennessee, and/or Arkansas.
After that, there’s the SEC tournament. Then it’s do or die.
With a lineup as dominant in crunch time as that five-some was (small sample size and all) it’s good to know such a lineup exists whenever/if ever things look bleak this March.
Knowing Bruce Pearl will do whatever it takes rotation-wise to win should give any and all Tiger fans the utmost confidence that if AU does indeed go down in 2021-22, it won’t be without the heartiest of fights.