Breaking Down Auburn's Path in a Challenging South Region

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00:00Let's start with Auburn, the number one overall seed. They

00:03await the winner of a play in game in Dayton. Later this week

00:07that will be Alabama State the champions out of the SWAC in St

00:10Francis, Pennsylvania, the red flash into the NCAA tournament

00:15for the first time since the early 90s, the champions of the

00:19Northeast Conference. When you look at Auburn's portion of the

00:23South region, JY, that top half of this bracket, what do you

00:26make of the path for Bruce Pearls Tigers?

00:29I don't think they gave me any favors in the second round. I

00:32think you look at a team that's struggling right now mightily

00:34losers the three last four games. And that second round

00:37matchup I'm already eyeing up at Louisville and Creighton. You

00:41gotta look at this folks. Coach Kelsey did a great job. First

00:45you're coming over from College of Charleston to Louisville

00:47really with that team and establishing a culture. But

00:50then you look at the other side with Greg McDermott with the

00:53fourth time defending defensive player of the year Ryan

00:56Kalkbrenner. A 7-1 big who can protect the rim and could

01:00possibly give Janiye Broome fits when Janiye is around the

01:04basket. And you got to look at a guy like Ashworth as a scoring

01:08point guard. I think that is an intriguing 1-8 or 1-9 match. I

01:14would say if Creighton were to get by Louisville, when you look

01:17down the next two matchups, you know, UC San Diego, people are

01:20going to talk about this could be one of the upset picks that

01:21people are going to look at as a possible win because of the fact

01:25that Michigan can be a little flighty. I mean, they were

01:28flighty today just getting that win in the Big Ten tournament.

01:31And then you have James Jones, Yale, Danny Wolfe goes to

01:36Michigan. Could we could we see Yale beat Texas A&M and Coach

01:42Jones go against his former best player in the second round?

01:46Yale is a live play as the 13th seed.

01:49Last year as a 13 seed against a four seed out of the South

01:53region, that being the Auburn Tigers then, Yale pulled off the

01:57upset. Danny Wolfe might be in Ann Arbor with the Big Ten

02:00tourney champs in the Michigan Wolverines. But John Pulikides

02:05still there for the Yale Bulldogs and a couple of great

02:08performers who have won the Ivy League. James Jones, maybe one

02:12of the most undervalued coaches around the country in college

02:15basketball for NCAA tourney trips for the Bulldogs in the

02:19last six years.

02:21JY, we talk about teams that were left on the outside of the

02:24bubble teams that did not reach the NCAA tournament. And of

02:28course, those are the teams we always consider being snubbed.

02:31But it's also the seed lines that always perplex a few. Where

02:35did the committee slot you in terms of your position in the

02:38NCAA tournament field of 68? And one that scratched many ahead

02:43right from the very start was the eighth seed in the South

02:46region, Louisville, the runner ups in the ACC, as you alluded

02:51to in that tournament title game, losing to Duke on a

02:54Saturday night, a very compelling 8-9 matchup between

02:57the Cards and the Blue Jays who also finished runner up in their

03:00conference tournament this week, of course, the St. Johns of the

03:02Big East.

03:03And you look at it, just go to Kempom. This is a team that's

03:05rated 23rd in the Kempom ratings, right? A team that's

03:08really good defensively, 21st in adjusted efficiency, pretty good

03:12offensively as well. Let's look at the top 50. So this is a team

03:1529th. So this is a team in Louisville that can beat you on

03:19both sides of the ball offensively and defensively.

03:21Shoot the ball well from three. Don't turn the ball over enough

03:25a lot. Great offensive rebounding percentage of the

03:27ability to go get another shot. I really do. They don't think

03:31that they really gave. I don't think they gave Auburn any

03:34favors here. I mean, you could literally look at this and we'll

03:37go through it like yeah, could Auburn be the first team? First

03:41one seed to get knocked out? There's a distinct possibility

03:45of this because of the fact that I think both Louisville and

03:49Crane for their style of play, how they defend and their

03:53coaching can each take out Auburn, a team that's not

03:56playing good basketball right now.

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