LEXINGTON, Ky. — Auburn basketball hopes to advance to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019 with a round-of-32 win. But there’s a team on the other bench looking to maintain a streak of postseason excellence.
Nine-seed Creighton squares off with the top-seeded Tigers on Saturday (6:10 p.m. CT, TBS), in the first-ever meeting between Bruce Pearl and Bluejays head coach Greg McDermott. Now in his 15th season with the program, McDermott has led Creighton to 10 March Madness appearances.
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This bid extended a streak of five straight NCAA Tournaments. Each appearance of those five came with a victory, as the Bluejays beat 8-seed Louisville 89-75 on Thursday to advance.
“We’ll find out if we’re good enough to play against a team as good as Auburn,” McDermott said Friday. “That will be decided on the court. I don’t think we will panic. I just think our guys really have a tremendous amount of belief in one another. They’re extremely connected, and that unity is why we are here.”
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Ahead of the matchup, where’s what McDermott said about the Tigers.
Auburn basketball’s Bruce Pearl, McDermott have never faced off — but go way back
Pearl was an assistant under Tom Davis at Iowa, from 1986 to 1992. McDermott is a native of the Hawkeye state, born in the city of Cascade. He was a player at Northern Iowa during Pearl’s stint with the Hawkeyes.
“We both started at the Division II level as coaches,” McDermott said. “At that point in time, there weren’t a lot of guys making the jump from Division II to Division I, so when somebody does, you follow their progress. … I don’t think anybody is surprised by what he’s done at Auburn. He’s been good wherever he’s been, and his teams play disciplined, physical basketball, and I’m not surprised they have had the season that they’ve had.”
How Creighton will try to stop Auburn basketball’s Johni Broome
All eyes will be on Johni Broome on Saturday, and that includes Creighton’s.
“He’s one of the best offensive players in the country at his position, and I’ve got one of the best defensive players in the country in Ryan Kalkbrenner,” McDermott said. “We can’t let him beat us in multiple ways.”
Kalkbrenner, the four-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year, will be tasked with halting Broome’s offense, but as McDermott understands, there’s more to the Auburn star’s game than points. While Broome averages 18.7 points per game, he also averages 10.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.2 blocks.
“We can’t be in a situation where he’s beating us every which way,” McDermott said. “That maybe sounds easy. It’s very difficult to do.”
Why Creighton basketball is one of the best at defending without fouling
Often aggressive and physical, Auburn’s defense has always been curbed by foul trouble. But that’s not an issue for the Bluejays.
“There are things that you understand, because of the make-up of your team, you’re probably not going to win that analytical battle,” McDermott said. “So what area can we win? One area we’re trying to win is the free throw battle.”
Nationally, the Tigers have drawn the 23rd-most whistles this season and third-most among high-majors, at 631. Creighton’s one of three teams that hasn’t fouled 400 or more times, at 383. That’s the third-fewest in the country. But the free throw disparities don’t necessarily add up.
While Creighton’s opponents have attempted the second-fewest free throws of anyone nationally, the Bluejays have 571 attempts, tied for 261nd. Auburn has attempted 713, tied for 62nd nationally. However, they’ve allowed the 17th-most free throws in the country, at 765 attempts.
“It’s just a philosophical way of looking at it that we have chosen, because of our personnel,” McDermott said. “It’s a must for us to be successful. If we have 22 fouls tomorrow we’re done. Start the engines, we’re out of here.”
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at[email protected] or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter,@colereporter.
