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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 15, 2019Bruce PearlBryce BrownJared HarperSt. Louis, Missouri Auburn-73, South Carolina-64 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Auburn. We will start with some opening thoughts on the game from Coach Pearl. BRUCE PEARL: Just want to start off by congratulating Chris Silva. I think if Frank Martin wanted to put a picture of a player up that said something about South Carolina basketball, my guess is it would come pretty close to Chris Silva. He didn't come to South Carolina as a first-team all-conference player. He certainly became one. He was the face of South Carolina basketball. He plays tough, hard, physically. He is the entire game plan when you're preparing the Gamecocks. I want to congratulate him and Hassani Garrett, Tre Campbell, seniors. They're not done playing basketball. It's always great to compete against those guys. Very proud of these two guys here. Jared Harper stuffed the stat sheet. He had 27 points, but also led his team in rebounding, assists, led his team in so many ways. You cannot beat a South Carolina team that extends and puts that much pressure on you without a great point guard. They just didn't have anybody that could stay in front of him. As far as Bryce is concerned, he could have made 15, but made five. That's how dangerous he is. That's how much we want to try to get him open. He played 36 minutes without a turnover. He sort of let it come to him. A great, great, great stabilizing force. Played solid defensively. Great win. Last thing I'll say, Horace Spencer, our bench -- key to the game today was we outscored South Carolina's bench 23 to 2. At this time of the year in March, a lot of coaches will shorten it because it's one-and-done. We're not going to go that way. We have to trust our bench. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Jared and Bryce. Q. Jared, you had 19 points in the second half, got to the free-throw line, shot 14 free throws. What was your mentality in the second half? JARED HARPER: Just trying to continue to get downhill in transition, in the halfcourt. I think a couple possessions I was able to get the rebound myself, take it end to end to make a layup. Coming into the game, coach wanted us to push the brake on whether it's a made basket or missed basket. We're a better team when we're outrunning the transition. We were able to do that tonight. Q. Bryce, talk about defensively the job you did the second half, especially on the perimeter. BRYCE BROWN: We know they have a couple shooters. That's part of the scouting report, pressing up on the shooters. The thing with Silva was making the wings catch it hard. It would be a long pass into the post area. Our job as guards, me, Jared, Samir, and Malik, was to find the guys on the wing, make the passes a little tough so it wouldn't be so easy to get to Silva. I thought we did a pretty good job of that later in the game, second half particularly. Q. Bryce, what makes Jared such a special point guard and player? BRYCE BROWN: Because he's able to do everything, pretty much. I know he kind of makes it look easy when it's late in the game, three minutes left. A lot of pressure on the line. When you have a guard that's just able to get past the man at will, like easy, that's not real easy. He makes it look easy. He gets to the free-throw line, knocks the free throws down. That comes from being experienced, his work ethic. He's in the gym every day working at it. That's why he's such a great player. THE MODERATOR: We'll excuse the student-athletes and continue with questions for Coach Pearl. Q. You talked about the bench. Talk about Horace Spencer. The three he hit. You've been teaching him how to do that? BRUCE PEARL: I've not been teaching him how to do that. Maybe Marquis Daniels or Wes. Interesting. We are a team that we encourage our guys to shoot when they're open. We try to bring the three ball into Horace's game this year. Spent a lot of time in the summertime working on it. Unfortunately at the start of the season, I don't know what the stat sheet says, he's probably taken 10 to 15, I'm not even sure. He was 0-for for a lot. We kind of said at some point, you probably need to put it away. It's going to be in his game as a professional, it is. But you got to find a way. The shot was in rhythm, it was inside-out. It looked good when it left his hands. It gave our bench a chance to laugh, lighten the moment up a bit. I'm happy for Horace. You have to go to your strength and stay away from your weaknesses. That is not his strength. He has been putting in the work. He shoots a ton of them. Look, we set an SEC record, all time, for the most threes. We don't just make a lot of them, we shoot a good percentage. We work at them really hard. Part of it is I love when bigs can face like what Silva has done. Adding that ability to his game, you talk about hard to guard when your center can go out there. Anfernee McLemore has proved that. We need Anfernee back on track to continue to advance in this tournament. Q. You were plus 16, Chris Silva's five minutes when he wasn't on the floor. What were you able to take advantage of in those five minutes? BRUCE PEARL: He is a very special, very impactful player. He protects the rim all by himself. Let's just say we've got matchups out there, and we can attack those matchups. Congratulations, meet Mr. Silva at the rim and life is going to change. So much of what they do offensively goes through him. Keep in mind, South Carolina is still shorthanded, like us a year ago. They come into post-season play, Lawson is just now back, only able to get 13 minutes. They had some injuries earlier this season. They lost a few games at the end of the year because they went to Missouri, had like six guys, seven guys. I lived it a year ago. Obviously the fatigue. Look at the minutes, 34, 35, 36, 37, 35. They had five guys play very heavy minutes. It was a factor at the end of the game. Q. You mentioned the record for three-pointers. What does it mean to have that record for your team? BRUCE PEARL: Auburn basketball probably doesn't have many records in the history of the SEC, but we got one now. I just think we're honored to be here. We are honored to be in a semifinal of the SEC tournament. We worked so hard to try to put ourselves in that position. You got to do it. You got to do it. They'll certainly remember guys like Jared Harper or Bryce Brown, Danjel made a couple of big shots, Samir made a couple of big shots. A lot of guys. It's hard to guard when you can spread the floor like that. Q. You have Austin Wiley in there for a rotation. What did you see from him? How important was that? BRUCE PEARL: We were in deep foul trouble. I didn't want to get in any deeper foul trouble. Austin has had a contact practice this week. He did great. He is not ready from the standpoint of able to perform, but he's not injured. So it's really hard to have him out there and expect a ton from him. He's a great teammate. He wants to help his team. He's a part of it. I think had we put him in the rotation, it would have meant less Horace Spencer. That probably wouldn't have been a good thing. Austin is able, as we said, getting closer and closer. Depth is a good thing to have in March. Q. It's a short preparation, but you had some success at home, talk about the Florida matchup. BRUCE PEARL: First time we've beaten Florida at Auburn since 1999. It was the first time I'd beaten Coach White since he came into the league. He is a brilliant young coach. They are hard to guard. They switch a lot, so we're going to have to find ways to be able to score on them. They're a dangerous team, too, because they spread it. They're very unique defensively. Who switches one through five? Very unique. We played well. We played very well at home in our victory. It was a great win for Florida over LSU. I don't know enough about it yet, can't comment much more. Q. You talked about having Frank having your number in the past. Did you say anything after the game about having his number this time around? BRUCE PEARL: No. You don't take any pleasure in beating a friend. Had we lost, I'd have been really happy for my friend because it would have been a win that might have helped advance their résumé, get them in the tournament. South Carolina is so fortunate to have him as leader of their program. If he had a couple more healthy bodies, he still would have had my number. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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