Auburn wins, 78-77.
Auburn now is 27-9 overall.
AUBURN BY THE NUMBERS
2FG: 14-of-26 (54%)
3FG: 12-of-31 (39%)
FT: 14-of-21 (67%)
New Mexico State grabbed more rebounds, 39-24.
Auburn is 10-6 this season when being out-rebounded.
NEW MEXICO STATE BY THE NUMBERS
2FG: 18-of-26 (69%)
3FG: 7-of-25 (28%)
FT: 20-of-27 (74%)
MY AUBURN PLAYER OF THE GAME
G J'Von McCormick: 16 points (6-of-8 shooting), 2 steals, 2 rebounds, 1 assist
FROM THE NEW MEXICO STATE SIDE
"I'm looking forward to watching it at some point. I won't watch it today, or tomorrow, but at some point I will get over this and put myself back together and sit down and watch it. It will be hard, I'm sure." — NMSU coach Chris Jans on the final shot
"They outsized us all the way up and down the roster. But we expected to out-rebound them; that is what we do, that is our calling card. We've got the right players, the right mindset and we have to keep getting better and hopefully put ourselves in a position to have a chance next year." — Jans
"I had the open shot. I felt like Terrell Brown was going to hit the three." — A.J. Harris on eschewing an open two for a pass out to the perimeter at the :01.7 mark.
FROM THE AUBURN SIDE
• The axiom holds that March is all about surviving and advancing. There are no style points when it comes to winning in the NCAA Tournament because, well, the opponents and the spectacle and the new arenas and the pressure can create some really strange situations. We saw one today when Auburn did almost everything possible to lose its Round-of-64 game against New Mexico State. Turnovers. Missed free throws. Obvious confusion. Unnecessary, ill-timed fouls. Poor body language all around. This was one fine mess, but it also yielded a victory. And, really, that's the end of the story for Auburn.
• But this isn't Auburn. This is AuburnSports.com. We can delve more deeply into what happened. It's difficult to find much of a takeaway here other than Auburn should count its blessings that it'll be spared the agony of losing that game and wondering for months, or even years, why it so aggressively deviated from its recipe for success. Survival is its own lesson and reward in this case.
• Auburn dodged some serious calamity. The first massive mistake was Bryce Brown getting sucked too close to the baseline to close out adequately on Terrell Brown's three with less than two seconds remaining. Terrell Brown, a 77-percent shooter at the line, missed two of his free throws — yet the last miss caromed off Samir Doughty's hand out of bounds.
• The second massive mistake was allowing SF Trevelin Queen an open look in the corner to finish the game. Auburn was switching screens in the paint and someone lost track of Queen in the chaos. Wiley was the closest guy, but he shouldn't be expected to close out on threes like that. That leaves Bryce Brown as the most likely culprit, though he was shoved into a pile of players and that made his task more difficult. As the buzzer sounded, Brown was defending a decoy five feet from the basket and Wiley was defending air. Not great.
• How do you grade Harper? On the plus side, he led the team in scoring and made some plays in transition, plays that yielded buckets, that nobody else on the roster could or would have made. And he managed the game quite well until the final few minutes. On the negative side, he managed the game poorly during those final two minutes — stepping out of bounds on the NMSU end at a crucial moment and allowing himself to be lured into a charge near the Auburn sideline. He seemed apologetic afterward. I take all that to mean Harper was swallowed by the moment, so to speak. The moment got too big for him. Ultimately Auburn survived, which makes this kvetching semi-irrelevant, but it's not at all reassuring for Pearl to watch his most trusted player fail so spectacularly during the season's most important sequences.
• I know exactly how to grade PG J'Von McCormick. He was terrific. I'd argue that Auburn wouldn't have been in position to close the game out without McCormick continuing his remarkable development from forgotten backup to vital cog. He finished with 16 points — one less than Jared Harper despite taking three fewer shots — and maintained, for the most part, a healthy and helpful aggression with the ball in his hands. Assistant coach Wes Flanigan made a great point afterward that McCormick didn't arrive on campus until the fall, which stalled his development in terms of getting in rhythm with this team. McCormick didn't start looking comfortable until February as a result, but he shines like a diamond now. He is the best low-profile Pearl has signed at Auburn.
• McCormick was spotted making the choke sign (hands to neck) as Terrell Brown stepped to the line with less than two seconds remaining. Though it may not be the most congenial thing to do, McCormick said it was a calculated decision — one that may have played a role in Terrell Brown's costly misses. "I saw in his face he was pretty scared," McCormick said. "We knew coming in they were a bad free-throwing team, so that was the key."
• Rebounding again was a Big Fail. The Aggies grabbed 39 to Auburn's 24, which has been a nagging issue lately — aside from the other-worldly effort against Tennessee in the SEC Tournament final. The Tigers are terrific at coaxing turnovers and using those turnovers to create additional possessions. That machination should serve as a huge advantage, but it ends up getting diluted due to these massive rebounding deficits. In short, the turnover game is keeping Auburn afloat rather than catapulting them ahead of the competition. Winning in March is all about getting 'er home with one headlight, so to speak, but the Tigers cannot win beyond the Round of 32 with double-digit rebounding margins. This just isn't good enough. I have no way to explain how 6-foot-7 Anfernee McLemore now has a total of five rebounds during the team's last five games. One rebound per game on average? It also works out to one rebound per 12 minutes since the SEC Tournament opener against Mizzou. It's just not good enough.
• Re-read that second quote above from the Aggies coach. He talks about how his team expected to win the rebounding battle because they have the right mindset. That's what Auburn was missing today. It didn't have a take-control mindset — at least during the final stages of this game. Where was it? Auburn certainly went for the throat against Tennessee to end the regular season and again in Nashville. It closed out with confidence at Alabama. These Tigers must summon some (lost) toughness for this game against Kansas because this timid rebounding and panicky clock management won't work against the Jayhawks. There is no more room for timidity. It's big-boy ball or bust from this point forward.
• Auburn now leads all NCAA teams with an 8-0 record in opening-round games since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
• Auburn resumes play Saturday against Kansas. Tip time for that game hasn't yet been determined by CBS.
