Auburn Tigers News: Bruce Pearl on beating UNA, Hugh Freeze on facing Texas A&M
In today's edition of Auburn Tigers News, Bruce Pearl discusses his team's big win over UNA and Hugh Freeze looks ahead to Texas A&M
It was the final home game before the Auburn basketball team headed to Maui, and they sent themselves off in style. Though North Alabama was able to keep things close early in the first half, the Tigers began to pull away closer to halftime and things escalated in the second half.
"I thought the guys respected North Alabama," said head coach Bruce Pearl, per Auburn Undercover. "You know, they've got a good team. They've got a chance to win their league. They're really well-coached. And you could see how they played us very close in the early portions of the first 16 minutes of the game... But we're hard to come back at just because of the pace of play and how hard they had to work to get open.
"But obviously, a huge advantage on the inside. It took us a while to get there. We shot some good inside-out 3's early in the game. I thought we settled a little bit. But Johni Broome proved why he's an All-American. He was the most dominant player on the floor. Our bigs shot an incredible percentage. And obviously we shared the ball with 25 assists. So our guys respected the opponent. I'm glad we played to the end. The next four games are going to be against Elite Eight-caliber teams. All four. And so it'll be a true test and a true measure of where we're at."
The Tigers will not play again until next Monday, November 25, when they take on Iowa State to open the Maui Invitational.
Hugh Freeze looks ahead to Texas A&M
Meanwhile, the Auburn football will be looking to end things on a high note in Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Tigers will play their last home game of the season this week when Texas A&M comes to town.
Auburn has struggled to win meaningful home games this season but gained some momentum this past weekend with the defeat of ULM. With a night game on the schedule, fans will be rowdy and will be hoping that the Tigers can pick up a second conference win. Head coach Hugh Freeze is hopeful that last week's win will give his players the confidence to do it again.
"We've tried to make changes that give these young kids more and more confidence (against ULM)," Freeze said, per Auburn Undercover. "... We limited some of the things we asked them to do. Hopefully that success will breed over to a great week of practice and prep for an outstanding A&M team. Obviously the roster you're facing here with them is different than last week."
Auburn and Texas A&M kick off at 6:30 on ESPN this Saturday night.