‘They don’t want this to end’: No. 1 Auburn soaks up Final Four

SAN ANTONIO – In the moment, Johni Broome did not realize he had just delivered one of the most epic moments in Auburn basketball history.

A painful injury, a tearful trip to the locker room, an inspiring return and an impossibly dramatic 3-pointer. Broome’s Hollywood ending helped No. 1 overall seed Auburn defeat Michigan State win the South Regional Sunday in Atlanta to advance to the Final Four.

“After the game, after I hit the shot, everybody was putting these clips together,” Broome said Thursday, four days after his theatrical 3-pointer. “I was like, ‘Dang.’ I didn’t think it was going to be that drawn out, but the Auburn fans loved it.”

After four NCAA Tournament victories during the previous two weeks, the top-seeded Tigers arrived in Texas Wednesday afternoon before getting their first look at the Alamodome Thursday morning.

Before practice, the Tigers shuttled through an assortment of video shoots and interviews, generating content that will be shared this weekend on CBS.

“It feels great to be at a Final Four,” said Broome, who practiced Thursday for the first time since Sunday’s game and pronounced himself “100 percent” for Saturday’s semifinal. “Feels great be in the arena, in the atmosphere.”

The Tigers practiced for 90 minutes Thursday morning, getting acquainted with the massive venue that holds 64,000 for the Final Four.

“Why not us?” assistant coach Ira Bowman exclaimed while Auburn warmed up and head coach Bruce Pearl Facetimed briefly with 2019 Final Four hero Jared Harper before visiting with CBS analysts Bill Raftery and Grant Hill, and reporter Tracy Wolfson.

Dylan Cardwell, the winningest player in program history, made it clear that reaching the Final Four is not the ultimate objective.

“We’re focused on winning it all,” Cardwell said. “Getting here is cool, but we came here for one goal and one goal only, the national championship. This is the last chance we have.”

Cardwell’s now-famous pep talk helped inspire Auburn’s march to the national semifinals after an uneven performance in the Tigers’ 83-63 victory over Alabama State in the round of 64.

“A heightened sense of urgency,” said Cardwell, noting the significance of Auburn’s SEC regular season championship while outlining the opportunity to achieve more. “I told these guys we have the opportunity to be the biggest bust in Auburn history or the greatest (team) in Auburn history, and we proceeded to choose the latter.”

In the first meeting between SEC opponents at the Final Four, Auburn (32-5) plays Florida (34-4) Saturday at 5:09 p.m. CT on CBS and the Auburn Sports Network.

“You don’t know that you’re ever going to get there once in your career, so you feel incredibly blessed and grateful to have a second opportunity,” said Pearl, who led the Tigers to the Final Four in 2019.

“Proud of our team for playing probably the most ambitious nonconference schedule we’ve ever played, and then have to go through the grind of playing in what was the best conference in college men’s basketball in history of the NCAA.

“To be able to come out of that as a regular-season champion was quite an accomplishment. The question then was, is there any more step up in your game? Because that’s what you have to do in March.

“I thought that through the Creighton, Michigan, Michigan State games, we demonstrated that we had more in the tank.”

Auburn knocked off Big Ten titans Michigan and Michigan State to make it to San Antonio. Now, a familiar foe awaits, as all four No. 1 seeds have reached the Final Four for the second time.

“We come in as the overall No. 1, but we’re probably considered the fourth best team here right now,” Pearl said. “There is nothing new. I prefer the underdog role rather than having to prove that we’re as good as we say we are. We’re going to take that underdog role into the Final Four and see if we can capitalize on it.

“This is it. We’re running out of one shining moments. We do it now, or like Dylan Cardwell said, this is the last free breakfast. Every morning he’s been prepared to wake up and not have a free breakfast. There’s a lot of T-shirts. We want Dylan to continue to eat free.”

“There’s a level of desperation knowing tomorrow could be our last game every single time for this group. They don’t want this to end.”