Postgame Pod: Auburn defeats Mississippi 79-61

And welcome on in everybody here to the post game pod at Auburn River Cover.

Nathan King here joined by Patrick Bingham here under Bridgestone Arena a couple hours

removed here from the Auburn Tigers opening round win over Mississippi State 79 to 61.

This was a game of course Patrick the Tigers absolutely had to have but it was one that

got a little shaky Auburn was down by 10 just a few minutes before half time but I think

the energy I don't know if you really noticed this like not getting spooked by that and

then everybody staying very engaged at that point and obviously the immediate response

Auburn had is probably the reason why they're still playing because it opened the door

to a second half or really Auburn's rolled after half time it was the much better team.

Yeah we talked about like the middle eight and football I don't know how that would

map out the basketball but it really was like that middle right before half time right

after half time for Auburn.

Of course Mississippi State coming out of the half did bang a few shots in but the Auburn

immediately kind of eliminated everything they just did and then just took off from there.

I think that's what Christian said to his post game he thought the turning point was was

going right into the locker room.

Auburn being able to make that run and not let like Josh Hubbard or the Bulldogs make

a shot going into the half.

Yeah it was a 7-0 run for them right before half time 7-0 run for Auburn.

You can extend that out a lot into the second half it was a 21 to 2 run for Auburn after

half time and that sort of give them the lead and look they were in a very similar position

as compared to the end of the Mississippi State game first time remember that game they

were up by 7 with 4 minutes left.

This game they were up by 8 with 4 minutes left but this time they were able to hang on

to it.

Kevin Overton was so crucial in this game for it just felt like anytime Mississippi State

had any semblance of life to maybe get back into it he just kept pushing Auburn head he

makes 6-3 pointers in this game I believe five of them came in the second half and then

Keishan Murphy against his former team this had to be sweet of course for him of course

it was he talked about how big of a game this was and it was a wide range of emotions

for him because he scores Auburn for 7 points of the game but then picks up two very

silly fouls on place 5 minutes there in the first half but he was extremely impactful

for them.

I think that's the thing is that you really saw it when he was out in that first half

how Mississippi State was able to take it man they were dominating the rebounds they

were dominating the points in the paint he comes in against his former team in the second

half and provides just a big difference for Auburn.

I believe Mississippi State was plus 12 on the boards at halftime and that flipped dramatically

I mean look no further than the fact that the box scores insane I mean only 21 minutes

for Keishan Murphy but he's a plus 28 in the game and then on the flip side Philip

Yovick is minus 13 in this game so that really showed the difference between those guys

on the interior.

Steve Pearl talked about you know Todd Pettifer played a good second half and really it

was kind of an all around effort in this one really the only one I don't remember having

a lot of impact other than that three down the stretch I'll take that back as Keishan

Hall hit a big three there when they had a four on one fast break Blake Michelle I had

I thought some of his best minutes in the first half of SEC play it's the most points

he scored in the in two months really good defensive work against Josh Hubbard a lot

of his teammates credit him for that but Patrick in less than 24 hours from this it kind

of all comes down to this one now that this was when you looked at you know the runway

for Auburn here in Nashville this was the you cannot lose this or we will stop talking

about you entirely like this is like you have to have this one you have to make amends

for the loss earlier and you can't lose another quad two game they did that now they are

on you know maybe even playing ground with some other teams in the bubble of you need

to go get a big win and they have that opportunity set out in front of them it's Tennessee

tomorrow approximately two o'clock central time depending on when the first game and against

the volunteers that's a game that they lost in Knoxville there's actually a pretty close

game throughout that that are always competitive in and I mean it really does just come down

to this one Patrick and and you know some guys talking about you know this is this is

a team that already had you know it has a good resume has some quality wins this season

but has known they said they've taken way too many losses of late and now they have

an opportunity to get one back yeah and they said that in words I won't say on here

but yeah I think that's the thing is it almost just mirrors for me what we just did this

past week of like LSU was the you have to win this or we're done Alabama is your chance

to go put yourself yeah to go to the tournament same thing again and I yeah it just kind

of all comes down to tomorrow we've seen a lot of other bubble teams lose in their conference

tournaments and lose early or to bad opponents but this is your this is how you kind of make

amends for that all met that quad three Ole Missy get the quad one here there's just like

so many different levels of like how important tomorrow is for the future of Auburn season

yeah I mean it's it's it feels like it's it I mean maybe there is an opportunity I

personally don't think nobody nobody really thinks that Auburn would be and they're certainly

not operating that way mentally right and Auburn definitely is I mean they they can stand

up there and talk about like Zimbrill did after the Alabama game like some players they

can talk about how hard their schedule has been and how many good wins they have but they

know that they got to go get one tomorrow and and really I mean it was a good start it was it was

not like this game you know they looked rocky like they had some things they worked through and

ended up getting a double digit margin of victory yes I thought that second half was one of the best

halves of basketball they didn't they win the half by almost 20 points or was a more than 20 minutes

to be stay and see percent after the game this was the best defense they've played in a long time

now Tennessee is a different animal it's a front court matchup now as opposed to you know

obviously this game is all about limiting Josh Hubbard who's name we have not really talked about

on this and that's really good that we didn't know he gets his points in score 22 but goes two of

eight from three and it's like and Zimbrill set up the game he's like you know when he doesn't have

eight more threes than that it becomes a lot easier to win a basketball game makes it up tomorrow

against Tennessee's front court you know that's a game that you lost that first matchup you lost

the rebounding battle by 16 in that one and so guys like he saw Murphy who had a good game today

I watched Freeman had 10 rebounds today they've got to go out there and do it and Zimbrill set up

the game you know that's gonna test their manhood it's gonna test their toughness it's one they've

got to have a different level of toughness and obviously they've got to have that if they want

to go dancing and they want to go to March band so yeah we shall see we will be here in the

back in British set arena at Auburn Undercover.com for the Tigers and the number five seed

volunteers for Patrick Bingham I'm Nathan King head over to Auburn Undercover.com we're gonna

continue to have coverage of this one um good stuff from from Patrick's videos in the locker room

and obviously getting to talk to everybody here today and uh we'll roll right on into the game

against Tennessee tomorrow so we'll see you guys over at Auburn Undercover.com