Steven Pearl knows that his team’s tournament hopes are hanging on by the thinnest of threads, with ESPN’s Bracketology now having Auburn as one of the first four teams out after a week in which the Tigers suffered two resume-devastating losses to Oklahoma and at home against Ole Miss.
But the first-year head coach is still keeping it positive when discussing what his team can accomplish this week, starting with Tuesday night’s game against LSU.
“I mean, we're still in control of our own destiny,” Pearl said on Monday. “And if you win these next two, you're probably in. But regardless, you got to take it one game at a time, and we got to do everything we can to beat LSU. And it's in the moment, it doesn't feel that way because obviously we had such a tough string of over our last eight and have had a lot of things just not go our way. But at the end of the day, through all the difficulty and all the struggles, we're still in position to make the tournament, and we just got to try and find a way to have that belief.”
Despite controlling destiny, it's difficult to see the Tigers coming through
Pearl isn’t wrong, but after the last two losses (and the Tigers losing six out of their last seven), it’s hard to imagine this team being able to come back after two games in which they could have almost locked a spot in the tournament, but instead looked as lackadaisical as they had all season. That won't fly against the Bayou Bengals, and definitely won't get it done against Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
According to their coach, it’s about his team cutting down on self-inflicted mistakes.
“Just trying to execute the simple things that we talk about, as soon as you draw two guys, get off it,” Pearl said. And every time we did that, we got a wide-open shot. Every time we didn't do that, it led to a turnover. Just IQ plays late in the first half, at the very end there, we get an offensive rebound on a free throw set, and we turn the ball over instead of bringing it out and trying to go for the last shot.”