Auburn’s Bruce Pearl Fires Shot at Officials after Alabama Loss

The Auburn Tigers lost 93-91 in overtime to the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday afternoon in Auburn. Player of the year candidate Johni Broome had 34 points on 15 of 28 shooting, but head coach Bruce Pearl took issue with how his star was treated by the officials.

Johni Broome took 15 or 16 of his first shots inside the paint and did not get fouled once, and I have an issue with that,” said Pearl after the game. “He could be the National Player of the Year, and he took 15 or 16 shots from the two and did not shoot a free throw. That is hard to overcome.”

Pearl’s inference was that a big man in the post getting shots in the paint draws fouls. Broome took 24 shots inside the arc, but only went to the free throw line five times in 43 minutes of play.

Pearl wasn’t ready to say the lack of calls in the paint were the reason the team lost, but he emphasized it was a factor.

“You score 91, you should be good enough to win,” said Pearl. “I don’t think we defended well enough. We didn’t rebound well enough. It doesn’t matter; we play them there they shoot 35 free throws. We play them here they shoot 24.

“They’re always shooting more free throws than us. Partly because the way they drive the ball downhill. Again, hard to overcome.”

Alabama shot 24 free throws to Auburn’s 17, making five more than the Tigers. In the two games this season, Alabama has gone to the line 10 more times than the Tigers.

More concerning for Auburn as they ready for post-season play, they were outrebounded for the second straight game. Texas A&M mauled them on the boards with a 41-25 advantage including a whopping 24 offensive rebounds. Alabama had a plus-seven rebounding edge (31-24) including an extra one on the offensive side (10-9).

The Tigers go into the SEC Tournament as the No. 1 seed and regular season champion, but they’ve taken their foot off the gas since beating Kentucky last week to secure the title. They lost the chance to make history with 16 SEC wins after losing the final-two games.

They get a double-bye in the SEC Tournament and won’t play again until Friday against Ole Miss, South Carolina, or Arkansas.

However, this team was always going to be judge by how they do in the NCAA Tournament. Auburn has five regular season or conference tournament championships in the last-eight years. This particular Tigers’ squad was built for an NCAA tournament run.

Do that, and no one is going to remember losing the final-two games in the regular season. Fail to at least make a deep run, and people are going to wonder if the Tigers took their foot off the accelerator too quickly.