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Everything Bruce Pearl said (on postgame radio) following No. 8 Auburn's road loss at Mississippi State

Justin Hokansonby: Justin Hokanson01/27/24_JHokanson
Auburn HC Bruce Pearl
Brad Penner | USA TODAY Sports

Bruce Pearl wasn’t thrilled following Auburn’s road loss at Mississippi State, and he shouldn’t be. The Tigers didn’t shoot the ball well, weren’t the more physical team, and lost a second straight Quad I road game.

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Here’s what Pearl had to say on postgame radio following the loss:

They are a very athletic team. They played really good defensively. We didn’t play well, we didn’t execute well. I give Mississippi State credit. When you get outrebounded like we got outrebounded, it was something. DJ Jeffries had 12 rebounds, 11 defensive boards, and against our three men. We hung in there. We mad a run in the second half. I thought Johni Broome did about a good of job you can do on Tolu Smith, he’s the guy. Our guys did a really job on him. Our guards, when we’ve won in our earlier SEC matchups, our guards guarded. We didn’t do a good job on Hubbard, on Moore, and that was a factor.

How about Johni Broome’s performance?

He did a good job. He hung in there. Tolu Smith had nine points, what kind of job did Johni do? He played great defense, played hard. He was a little frustrated, some great baskets and plays himself. We could have done a better job of getting it to him. If he’s 5-7 and the team is shooting 34 percent…I’ve got some guys that are struggling to shoot the ball and they just need to stop, just need to stop shooting if they can’t make it. As a result, the ball will move and maybe we have a chance to get him more than seven shots, but we can’t because the ball is just getting chucked up there.

What will this adversity show?

We’ll see how we bounce back. We had disruptions…losing to good teams, both Quad I teams. We’ve lost to the best teams on our schedule, but there’s something to be said about beating who you are supposed to beat. There won’t be many people that come in here and win. We’d like to think we could have, we had a shot at it, but we didn’t get enough stops. You have to step up and be able to make plays. I thought Johni stepped up. I thought Chaney Johnson stepped up. I thought Tre Donaldson did some good things, but not with great consistency. Denver Jones made some big shots in the second half. Sometimes we give and just give it back.

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