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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: SAN DIEGO

March 16, 2018

San Diego, California

Auburn - 62, Charleston - 58

THE MODERATOR: For the Auburn Tigers, head coach Bruce Pearl, student-athletes are Mustapha Heron and Desean Murray. Opening statement please?

BRUCE PEARL: We knew we were going to have our hands full with the College of Charleston and they had tremendous guard play. I want to congratulate their coaching staff and their university on a tremendous run. They were good enough to advance. They knew it going in, but the defensive effort that we had holding Joe Chealey down to just a couple points and he's been such an a dominant player in that league for so long. Our kids did what we have been doing all year finding a way and working hard on the defensive end. Offensively, it was a struggle and we're going to have to play better on Sunday particularly to be able to advance. Questions for the student-athletes?

Q. Mustapha, can you take us through that last play? Did you guys get a hand on the ball? On the shot?
MUSTAPHA HERON: When Grant Riller shot?

Q. Their last shot?
MUSTAPHA HERON: One of the best guards in the SEC was guarding him and you saw what happened. He forced an air ball and I think he got a hand on it. But Bryce is one of the best guards in the SEC defensively, so he got a hand on that and game over.

Q. Can you guys tell us a little bit about your offensive performance today? I know it probably wasn't your best game. Just your thoughts on that?
MUSTAPHA HERON: Just something that, no, this was definitely probably worst one of the year, definitely. But it's good to survive and advance. We got stuff we can go look at as far as film goes and stuff we can work on for Sunday and get ready to go and play hard on Sunday.

Q. Guys, when it was tight down the stretch was there a concern that, oh, we might actually lose here? Were you able to stay in the moment and continue to execute down the stretch?
DESEAN MURRAY: I wouldn't say at any time we thought we were going to lose. We just stayed together as a team. We just all love each other. We all stay together and we fight to the end. That's what we've been known for, our fight to the end. We came out with the win.

MUSTAPHA HERON: Just to piggyback off of what Desean said, we never think we're going to lose. We came together and grind it out a little bit more. That's what we did.

BRUCE PEARL: They were helpful on the bench telling me who I should put in there and who should come out. Desean told me to put Horace in there late, and I don't know that I did. But it was probably a good suggestion. So we work together.

Q. I'm curious if you noticed 13 on Charleston who had the big game in their conference championship? They scored a lot of points. Looked like he was injured today or hobbled. Do you see any difference in him compared to what you saw on film?
MUSTAPHA HERON: I didn't notice it until second half that he was hobbling. But for him to be such a good player I think we definitely did a good job of trying to shut his water off.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. Questions for Coach Pearl?

Q. Coach, talk about the shot that Jared took at the end of the game there? Hasn't made a field goal all night and then comes up with that to win the game for you guys.
BRUCE PEARL: We put him in ball screen and try to get him advantage/disadvantage and they went under the ball screen. So he's almost conditioned by nature to look for his shot. He had taken a shot about four or five minutes earlier, similar to that, but we had rolled down Desean Murray on a guard and I didn't think it was a good shot. I thought we had advantage on the inside.

But in that particular case he was going, I believe he was going right to pull and he was open. And I want those guys to be able to have the freedom to take and make those shots. Bryce Brown didn't shoot the ball very well in the first half. Thought he forced a few things, but when he was open I wanted him to continue to take those shots.

Q. I'm not sure if you've had a chance to watch that last defensive sequence back yet, but could you walk us through your perspective? It looked like you were yelling foul.
BRUCE PEARL: Yeah, we put Davion Mitchell in as a freshman because of his defense and then he got fouled and missed two free throws which can sometimes happen to a freshman. I told Bryce, and I only had one timeout, I didn't want to burn it, to go ahead and foul. And of course they missed it. I didn't have an opportunity to, but they missed the free throw. And as Bryce was working them up I wanted to foul. We work on fouling about three or four seconds left before they get the shot off. But I think he may have pulled slightly before then, so it wasn't at that number.

Bryce challenged the shot. I haven't seen it on film, but Bryce, a pretty good defender, I thought he was pretty vertical. And College of Charleston they kick their legs out on 3s. They draw falls on three-point shooting and I thought our guys did a good job of staying way from that.

Q. In the first half you guys only shot 28% from the field, missed all 13 three-point shots yet still led by 7 with under two minutes to go. What does that say about your defense?
BRUCE PEARL: I think it's our team all year long. You look out there and wonder how from the standpoint of our size and depth but the kids have a definite resiliency. They have a toughness. They're trying to make history. They're trying to represent in our conference.

You know, we are really proud of the SEC basketball right now. SEC basketball, I've been in this league for ten years. It's never been stronger and we feel a responsibility have been the 1-seed winning the regular season championship to represent our conference. So maybe we are putting a little too much pressure on our kids. We missed a lot of free throws tonight. We are an 80% free throw shooting team, one of the best in the country. You have to attribute that to nerves, first time being here in a long time, kids putting pressure on themselves. I gotta get them to relax a little more, enjoy the moment which maybe will free them up offensively so they can perform better.

Q. Just to clarify on the last defensive play, watching it live it looked like it was clean and you didn't think he fouled him?
BRUCE PEARL: I didn't.

Q. What do you do on an off day in San Diego? You were talking about getting them to relax. We could give you some options there.
BRUCE PEARL: Well, I gotta tell you, I'll thank the NCAA. It's an honor to compete in this tournament. And for Auburn to get to come to San Diego, California, travel as well as we do, stay like we're staying. This is a real reward and we brought our band and our cheerleaders and our basketball team and they're all, as students, this is a one shining moment for them. This is special and I think our guys appreciate it. By winning we get to stay in San Diego for a couple more days and see if we have a chance to win another one and go to Boise. I'm sure the guys will have no trouble watching the tournament. That's the best thing about being in the tournament. They're going to go back to the hotel and watch games tonight, Missouri-Florida State, see if we can get another SEC team in this thing. Only difference is this year Auburn is a part of it.

Q. Bruce, the first half you're 0-13 on threes, shooting 20-some percent and yet at halftime you're tied. Was there relief in that?
BRUCE PEARL: There definitely was. We turned them over 21 times. College of Charleston is ranked I believe ninth in the country in turnovers. They be only turnover nine times a game. Auburn turned them over 21 times. What does that tell you about the effort and the energy by our kids? Because we were struggling offensively and just finding way. As far as the three-point shot is concerned, look, we don't have a dominating post player. We get inside off of drives, off of slips and ball screens. We don't post up. So we better knock down some threes. That's our game. We've done it all year long and we made enough tonight to win the game.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

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