They call it madness for a reason, and the Auburn Tigers looked at halftime of their matchup against the #1 seeded Houston Cougars to be on the cusp of defining the word themselves. Leading 41-31 at the break, Bruce Pearl’s squad knocking off Kelvin Sampson’s Cougs would have meant a third #1 seed eliminated on the first weekend of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Of course, in incomprehensible fashion, Purdue fell to 16 seeded Fairleigh Dickinson in just the second time this has happened in tournament history, then as Auburn was having a dominating first half, Arkansas knocked off Kansas to advance to their third straight Sweet 16.<\/p>\n
Trying to be the third team to knock out a #1 on the weekend was not going to be an easy task, but Auburn could not make the free ones count, shooting an almost unbelievable 19\/36 (52.8%) from the charity stripe. This is simply not going to win you games in March. Not to mention the fact that Houston went 18\/18 from the line in the second half.<\/p>\n
Johni Broome, who has been arguably the Tigers best player this season but struggled from the line all year, shot a mind-boggling 6\/16 at the free throw line. Shots in general were not falling for Auburn in the second half and Houston was simply the better team last night, but to be outscored 50-23 in the second half after leading by 10 at the break is almost astounding.<\/p>\n
All season long, Auburn has been a good team that struggles to close games out. Saturday’s Round of 32 matchup against Houston was the culmination of that. A disappointing end to a season for the Tigers that just never really fully came together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"