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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: SALT LAKE CITY

March 23, 2019

Salt Lake City, Utah

Auburn - 89, Kansas - 75

THE MODERATOR: We welcome Auburn representatives to the stage. Along with Coach Pearl, we have Jared Harper and Bryce Brown. Let's ask Coach Pearl for a brief opening statement.

BRUCE PEARL: Well, first of all we're awfully excited to have advanced to the Sweet 16. It's the fifth time in Auburn basketball history that we managed to do that. We just know that, we're just grateful, all of us, for the opportunity to represent Auburn in this kind of a competition.

Tremendous respect for the Kansas program. It was an honor to compete against them. The reality is our Auburn basketball team is a better team than the Kansas team. I think Bill will say that. I think we just had a little bit -- we've got some firepower. We'd like to think we've got, we're tough to play against because we have ten guys that play and they all contribute. So in some ways, it really wasn't an upset; I thought the better team won tonight.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Jared and Bryce Brown, please.

Q. Auburn's known as a football school. What do you think campus is going to be like this week when you get back? It's been 16 years since you have been to Sweet 16.
JARED HARPER: Coming back to school, there will be a lot of support moving forward.

Q. Bryce, over the last couple of weeks, what's changed for this team? It's an 11-, 12-game winning streak now and an SEC Championship. What's clicked over the past few weeks? It's now six games in ten days.
BRYCE BROWN: It starts on the defensive side. Kind of midway through SEC play we weren't really happy where we were. Coach always talked about how it was on us if you want to make that decision that you want to go far in the tournament, it's starts on the defensive side. Ever since we made that adjustment, we're moving the ball well, defending, you know, being physical.

Those things are small things that it takes to get to the Sweet 16 and even further.

Q. For Jared or Bryce, six games in ten days, how are you guys able to still play at such a high level with so many games in such a short period of time?
JARED HARPER: That is a testament to our off-season work with our strength and conditioning coach, Coach D, does a good job with us getting our bodies ready the whole summer, early in the preseason, and even during the season we work a lot on our bodies just for times like this when other teams will be tired and us as a team we're not going to be tired. Plus we have ten players that are able to run the floor the way we do, we're able to tire teams out.

Q. Either player. You guys got off to a hot start. What was going so well offensively and did you feed off each other after that?
BRYCE BROWN: Yeah, like I said, it starts on the defensive side of the ball with us. Typically when we start off hot on a defensive end, we start off hot on the offensive end. And that's what it's been like all season-long. We get out in transition, knock down shots. And I feel like that's just part of who we are and what we do. And we continue to do that and we continue to win ball games and go even further.

Q. It must be asked, have either of you guys met Barkley, Charles Barkley?
JARED HARPER: We've met him a couple of times. He has a statue in front of our gym now so we have definitely met him a couple of times.

Q. Any stories?
BRUCE PEARL: No. (Laughter.)

THE MODERATOR: We will dismiss the student-athletes and thank them. Once they have left the stage, we will return to questions for Coach. Thank you, guys. Questions for Coach Pearl.

Q. Bruce, does this game feel like a polar opposite to the second round last year?
BRUCE PEARL: Yeah. I mean, look, last year we had a courageous group of kids. We went into the SEC tournament with eight scholarship players. They give you 13. A couple of guys were suspended, a couple of guys were hurt. We were just fortunate to limp home and win our last regular-season game against South Carolina. We went to the SEC tournament and we just didn't have enough. We were fortunate to get by Charleston and got dominated by Clemson.

There's a much different feel because we have ten healthy bodies, we're playing really good basketball. We were in the best position that the program could possibly be in to win that basketball game. I talked to my athletic director, Allen Greene, before the game, I said, I know the outcome, I feel like we're in a really good spot right now to make history.

Q. Bruce, talk about Jared and his play, how he runs the offense. Every time Kansas tried to make a run, it looked like Jared had everything under control. Talk about his leadership and the way he runs this ball club.
BRUCE PEARL: I don't know if Belichick feels this way about Brady, but I'm sure there are times he thinks Brady is smarter than him. I know he's smarter than me.

He's got -- obviously he's fearless. And he knows his role. Little guys have got to be, they've got to have great range, they've got to be special in ball screen offense and defense. And they have to have command of their locker room, and he has all those things. Self-made, nobody works harder. Great family. His best coach is his father.

And I'm really proud of, like the two guys we had in here, Cedric Brown and Pat Harper spent as much time with their sons in the gym still as we do as coaches. Night, extra shooting. It's a beautiful thing. We're kind of a father-son program. My son is on my bench. Next year Wes Flanigan's son is coming to play for us. It's a really wonderful thing.

Q. This program took a big step last year. How huge is it this year to get to the Sweet 16?
BRUCE PEARL: Say again.

Q. You took a big step last year. How huge is it this year to get to the Sweet 16?
BRUCE PEARL: It's a big step. I'm very proud of the SEC. I'm blessed to be able to coach in the SEC. I was rooting like crazy for LSU and Kentucky. I will be rooting for Tennessee and the teams that we still have alive in this tournament. Because we had a great Conference this year, so competitive, such great coaches and the kids, really good kids. So the fact that we're still playing, I know the SEC's proud of us. That means a lot to me.

Q. Bruce, your daughter was sitting, your older daughter Jacqui was right behind press row and she's fun to sit by, she's got a lot of opinions. She seems to know the entire playbook. And she's not shy about sharing them. I wondered, are all your kids like that? Your son coaches for you. But are all your kids junkies and especially wondering if Jacqui has said, Dad, I think you need to run this play instead of that one?
BRUCE PEARL: Yeah. You can do anything as long as you have your family with you. And my family's been, we've done all this together. And so it's great to have her here. She was a pretty good player. In fact, she's probably a better rebounder than a bunch of my guys. She was more physical than they are. But my son is on my bench. Jacqui's here.

My two other children, Leah, works for a Turner, and she helps a lot of the talent get around. She works with Charles in Atlanta. So she's tied in and connected. And my son Michael is a junior in Auburn. Doesn't that kind of make sense? We're all in this together.

And my wife Brandy, for every family that's out there, she's so willing to give me up because she understands this ministry, she understands the needs of her student-athletes. And so she's get to share me a lot.

My kids are vocal. They yell at the refs more than I do. They think they know more than I do. What kids don't? It is special to be able to do this with them. Thanks for asking that question.

THE MODERATOR: Anything more for Coach? Thank you, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: SALT LAKE CITY

March 23, 2019

Bruce Pearl

Bryce Brown