Anfernee McLemore among Auburn players stepping up after Okeke’s season-ending injury

One year ago, Anfernee McLemore stood with the help of crutches in the Auburn basketball locker room and told his teammates how proud he was.

How the Tigers left for a preseason trip to Italy as a team, but left, in McLemore’s words, “as a family.” How those bonds helped Auburn win the SEC regular-season championship for only the third time in school history.

But without McLemore, who dislocated his left ankle and broke his tibia during a game at South Carolina the month before, Auburn lost by 31 points to Clemson in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers’ first March Madness experience in 15 years was over in four days.

“We just were absolutely unable to be competitive,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “From that moment forward, our goal this year was unfinished business.

You’d think they’d be slapping themselves on the back and pretty proud of what they had accomplished. It was historic a year ago. Not this group.

“That experience we had a year ago of not being able to advance through the tournament helped us.”

Nowhere did the Tigers brandish that attitude more this season than in Kansas City last weekend after Chuma Okeke, Auburn’s most valuable player in Pearl’s mind, suffered nearly the same fate as McLemore a season ago.

After learning Okeke had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during Auburn’s Sweet 16 victory over North Carolina and would need season-ending surgery, the Tigers vowed to win the rest of their games for him.

Without Okeke, Auburn’s best rebounder and defensive player — he led the team in blocked shots and steals — the Tigers would need a collection of players to step up and beat Kentucky in the Midwest Regional final, including McLemore.

“I feel blessed just to be out there,” said McLemore, who had doubts before the season that he’d be able to play just eight months after the gruesome leg break.

“Whenever I’m on the floor I’m just trying to do what I can to make sure we’re in a better position.”

Last season before his injury, McLemore blocked 73 shots, the most by an Auburn player in more than 15 years and the most by any Division I player who appeared in less than 30 games. In 30 minutes against Kentucky, McLemore had eight points, five rebounds and two blocked shots, including one that helped seal the 77-71 victory that sent Auburn to its first Final Four.

With under 30 seconds to play, McLemore knew Kentucky’s Keldon Johnson was looking to drive to the basket and draw a foul.

“It was either take a charge or go for the block,” McLemore said. “I knew that he drove in before and they gave him a blocking foul. So if I go vertical, even if I don’t get the block it would make it a tougher shot for him. So I put my hands up and I got my hand on it.”

McLemore said the Tigers entered the season determined to go farther than in 2018, but that seemed unlikely after a 27-point loss at Kentucky dropped Auburn to 18-9 overall and 7-7 in the SEC. A repeat regular-season title was not in the works, but the Tigers won the SEC Tournament with four wins in four days, part of their current 12-game winning streak.

“This year we were always focused on overcoming and getting further,” said McLemore, who has hit 10 of 21 shots, 4 of 10 from three-point range, and is averaging 6.3 points and 4.0 rebounds in the four NCAA Tournament games. “I feel like we fell short in the regular season but in this tournament we’ve really been playing well and kind of realized our expectations.”

In addition to McLemore’s injury, the Tigers were without forwards Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy last season because of eligibility concerns. Purifoy hit four three-pointers in the victory over North Carolina and Wiley is shooting 61% during the Tigers’ winning streak.

“Does the idea of a little bit more Austin Wiley, Anfernee McLemore, Horace Spencer and Danjel Purifoy, does that sound good?” Pearl said on Thursday. “I think the answer is any of those guys does sound good. You don’t talk about we’re going to lose 32 minutes of my most valuable player.

“Those guys are ready to respond. They’re different than Chuma, but I think they’re ready to respond.”

Coincidentally, McLemore’s injury last season gave Okeke an opportunity to blossom into the star he became this season and in the NCAA Tournament. In the South Carolina game in which McLemore was injured and the seven that followed, Okeke blocked 10 shots, made six steals and averaged 7.8 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.

This season, in addition to his team-leading 6.8 rebounds per game, 69 steals and 46 blocks, Okeke was third in scoring at 12.0 points per game. He was averaging 15 points, seven rebounds and three steals in the NCAA Tournament.

Okeke’s arrival to the arena during the second half of the Kentucky game gave the Tigers an emotional lift. But after successful ACL repair surgery Tuesday, Okeke couldn’t make the trip to Minneapolis for the Final Four.

He’s not far from his teammates minds though.

“It’s unreal. It’s very, very emotional,” Bryce Brown, senior guard, said of reaching the Final Four. “We really wanted to do this for Chuma and the Auburn family. They supported us so much, but it just goes back to trusting each other and just doing what we needed to do to win the game.”

This story was originally published April 4, 2019 at 3:16 PM.