‘We’re not Cinderellas in anything.’ Auburn’s run through blue bloods to the Final Four

After Auburn walked off the court with a win over the Kentucky Wildcats in the Elite Eight, Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl asked the press conference moderator to repeat their introduction.

“The Auburn Tigers going to the Final Four are with us.”

The road here to the Final Four has been a special one. The Tigers not only beat some of the best basketball teams in the country this season — they knocked off three of the programs in college basketball history.

• In the 32-teams round, Auburn knocked off Kansas, who owns 2,186 wins.
• In the Sweet 16, the Tigers beat North Carolina, with 2,173 wins
• In the game that solidified their spot in the Final Four, Auburn beat Kentucky, the winningest program in college basketball history. Kentucky has 2,205 wins.

Auburn, who proved they could defeat blue blood basketball giants, has just over 1,300 wins in program history.

“It’s an honor to even be on the floor with those programs, obviously they’re the Cinderellas of this tournament,” Pearl said. “Been a long time since men’s basketball has been good. That’s what makes it so special for us.”

The journey to the Final Four was almost derailed before the team even had a chance to soak the tournament experience. In the first round, the Tigers watched New Mexico State drill a three-point shot to draw within one with less than seven seconds left in the game. After the team’s exchanged free throws, New Mexico State had a shot at the buzzer to win the game, but it wasn’t meant to be for the Aggies.

Experts doubted the Tigers could beat the Aggies, even though Auburn was coming off an SEC title win over Tennessee. Bryce Brown said the doubt didn’t surprise him.

“It is nothing new to us, we are used to being the underdogs and like I said, nothing new,” Brown said.

Jared Harper added, “It is another motivation this year. We are playing our best basketball this time of the year, so we are not thinking too much of what other people are saying.”

The Tigers were just getting warmed up as they were able to explode in the first half against Kansas, as the Jayhawks were down by 26 points at the half before they even had time to catch their breath. The Tigers defeated Kansas 89-75.

Auburn would then steam roll through North Carolina 97-80 but would lose key player Chuma Okeke to a devastating knee injury.

Doubt would again reappear as to whether the Tigers could beat another blue blood without what Pearl has said all season was his best player in Okeke.

“I think in those moments, you begin to see what these guys are made of.” Pearl said.

The Tigers responded by taking down Kentucky in overtime after its dynamic guards Harper and Brown took over the game to send them into the Final Four against Virginia, another one of the perennial powerhouses.

Anfernee Mclemore says they knew when the bracket came out how tough the path to Minneapolis would be.

“The road to get here was just so tough. We knew once we got the draw in the Midwest Region it would be extremely hard to get there,” Mclemore said.” We played the underdog route the whole time. We knew that we would be picked against every single game.”

While some may consider Auburn the Cinderella story of this postseason, Pearl isn’t buying it.

“At Auburn in athletics, we’re not Cinderellas in anything.” he said. “We win championships.”