Bruce Pearl: Alabama loss 'doesn't take anything away from a championship season'

Despite the heartbreaking buzzer beater loss for Auburn, Bruce Pearl said the Alabama loss didn’t take away from what they accomplished this year. The Tigers clinched the SEC regular season title prior to the game.

Alabama won at the buzzer with a basket in overtime, despite Auburn’s best attempts in regulation. Pearl and the crew still laid claim to a conference crown ahead of tournament season.

Pearl made it clear following the loss. Auburn will now look ahead to the tournament and try to duplicate that title.

“The loss tonight doesn’t take anything away from a championship season,” Pearl said during his postgame radio spot.

Pearl and Auburn already cut down the nets for the regular season crown. But they already turned the page since Alabama was still on the docket.

“Well, we didn’t cut down nets tonight and we didn’t have a celebration,” Pearl said. “We lost the contest. We won the championship last Saturday and we celebrated then some as a team, as a family. I was proud of those guys. … But obviously, it’s a rear-view mirror thing.”

“We’re shifting gears to the postseason now. Postseason is all about step up. It’s just all about step up. … We get a couple more guys to step up. Obviously our front line has to defend better, rebound better. And Chaney (Johnson), Johni and Dylan (Cardwell) have got to be able to defend better against the best teams that we’ve gotten beaten by.”

Pearl, in typical fashion, was honest about his team’s loss Saturday. But it didn’t take away from the success coming into the finale.

“Just beat us on some closeouts and, you know, a number of different guys, you know, you could point to that got beat on closeouts and that’s just something that, you know, they’re good at,” Pearl said. “They’re really good one on one team.

“You know, you score 91, you should be good enough to win. I don’t think we defended well enough. We didn’t rebound well enough. And, you know, it doesn’t matter. We play them there, they shoot 35 free throws. We play them here, they shoot, you know, 24. So, they’re always shooting more free throws than us. Partly it’s because the way they drive the ball downhill and again, hard to overcome.”

Pearl and Auburn now await their opponent in the quarterfinals next Friday in the SEC Tournament.