AUBURN | A pair of college basketball players drawing comparisons to the 1980’s Boston Celtics championship teams is pretty high praise.
But that’s how Bruce Pearl sees it as No. 1 seed Auburn prepares to play No. 5 seed Michigan and their two 7-footers, Vladislav Goldin and Danny Wolf in the Sweet 16.
“I haven't seen this since I watched (Kevin) McHale and (Robert) Parish, right? These two guys are special,” said Pearl. “Goldin, in the Big Ten he was the best player on the floor almost every single night.
“And Wolf, there's not another 7-footer in college basketball that resembles him. He's got Larry Bird type ball handling, passing, feel. He's just a gifted, gifted player. Obviously they work beautifully together.”
The pair are the Wolverine’s leading scorers, rebounders and shot blockers.
The 7-foot-1 Goldin averages 16.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.4 blocks. He is shooting .616 from the floor including 11 of 32 3-pointers.
The 7-foot Wolf, who was part of the Yale team that upset the Tigers in the first round last year, averages 13.0 points, 9.8 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.4 blocks. He shoots .497 from the floor including 36 of 109 3-pointers.
Tasked with defending the duo will be All-American Johni Broome, fifth-year senior Dylan Cardwell, who is AU’s all-time winningest player, and Chaney Johnson.
“A lot of four or five-ball screens,” said Johnson about what’s tough about defending Goldin and Wolf. “That's pretty hard to guard when they have two 7-footers and they both set it a little bit different, but they're both really talented.”
The ability to defend both Goldin and Wolf along with key backup Will Tschetter will be key to Auburn’s chances of advancing to the Elite Eight for only the third time in program history.
“This is Sweet 16. We're going up against two 7-footers. It's going to be fun,” said Broome. “Everybody in that locker room is looking forward to the matchup. Our front line is looking forward to the matchup.”
Tip-off at State Farm Arena in Atlanta is scheduled for 8:39 p.m. CT on CBS.
