KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It wasn't until Samir Doughty hit his second free throw with 16 seconds to go that Malik Dunbar started to think it was possible. Even then — given what he'd seen one-possession earlier on a pull-up 3-pointer from PJ Washington — Dunbar wondered if a four-point lead would be enough to hold off the Wildcats in overtime.
"Really, I was nervous the whole time," Dunbar said.
Within the locker room, there are varying opinions on when Auburn knew it was a Final Four-caliber team. Most everyone thought it was possible, but likewise, they had their fair share doubts. It was a tenuous process that took Auburn from SEC bottom-feeder to league champion in back-to-back seasons, and now the lone representative in this year's Final Four.
Take Dunbar, for instance, who felt he didn't know until the waning moments of overtime with a six-point lead.
When Bruce Pearl returned to coaching, even he wasn't sure what the height of Auburn basketball could be. He thought the national brand and the community culture fostered an environment worthy of basketball excellence. But it had never happened before, so — as self-confident as Pearl is — he still questioned if Auburn could reach the highest stage in Division-I basketball.
"I thought that we could make Auburn competitive. Perhaps, relevant in college basketball. But I’m not sure that I put the Final Four as a real benchmark," Pearl said. "Now I do talk to my teams honestly about the fact that there are teams that you have that don’t have the ability. We can have a good year, but we’re just not capable of competing for a national championship. I made sure the last couple years that that’s what our goals were."
Pearl & Co. have chased that carrot ever since.
A deteriorated roster cut that dream short a season ago. Pearl knew going into that tournament Auburn didn't have the firepower or bench to make a deep run. Still, Auburn had won a regular-season conference title and made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. That would generally be a resounding success by Auburn basketball standards.
But his players' response to the abrupt end gave Pearl hope for the 2018-19 campaign.
"We talked about having unfinished business last year. Think about this. Last year, we have one of the second- or third-best seasons in Auburn basketball history. All the guys wanted to talk about is that there’s unfinished business. I’m thinking, ‘What are you talking about?’ I think you’re seeing here in this month the fruits of their attitude."
But a few midseason stretches stunted some of those expectations. Pearl has admitted it. The 2-4 start in SEC play didn't concern him as much as the three-straight losses to Kentucky, South Carolina and Mississippi State, or the back-to-back defeats to LSU and Ole Miss, the second loss to the Rebels on the year.
Even the first three games of the SEC Tournament didn't wow assistant coach Steven Pearl enough to be certain.
"Our first three games, they were not pretty. You remember. We didn’t play great in any of those games," Steven Pearl said.
But the next day changed the narrative completely.
Steven Pearl and Bryce Brown agree exactly when it clicked for them that Auburn could make a deep run. They looked up at the scoreboard in Bridgestone Arena and saw the Tigers dismantling Tennessee for the second time in eight days. They knew then Auburn could hang with anyone in college basketball.
"When we beat Tennessee by 20 in the SEC Championship game and basically a home game for them, I was like, ‘OK, this team’s got the juice to find a way to advance,'" Steven Pearl said.
"It was probably the Tennessee game we noticed it. We beat Tennessee by 20, and they’re a top-5 program. At that moment we felt like we can win this whole thing," Brown said.
Then again...
"Obviously New Mexico State kinda tempered my belief at the moment," Steven Pearl added, laughing.
But once Auburn squeaked that one out, the survive-and-advance mantra became more of an identity than a mentality. Auburn made quick work of Kansas and North Carolina. It took five extra minutes of work to do it against Kentucky. But the Tigers got it done.
Auburn saw the bracket back on Selection Sunday and were a little startled by the road it would take. So, in fairness, there was a certain level unknown on the day it won the SEC championship.
But this team doesn't lack confidence. It believes it is as good as anyone in college basketball, and nobody today is brave enough to tell them otherwise, especially considering the path it took.
"I know how good me and my teammates are, how hard we work. This was always the ultimate goal," Austin Wiley said. "It just means a lot. It just shows we’re going on the right path. After this year, we’re going to keep building the program and just continue to work. This is what we were supposed to do."
Ultimately, however: You never truly know — until you know.
"You can say you knew, but you really don't," Anfernee McLemore said. "You can always wish for it, but just to actually be here is different. It was all a dream before now."
