How Auburn survived without (and because of) Chuma Okeke

5:02 pm | March 31, 2019 | Go to Source | Author:

8:45 PM ET

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Chuma Okeke was wheeled into the Sprint Center and behind the Auburn bench early in the second half — right on time to watch his team rally for the biggest basketball win in school history.

The timing of his arrival might have been related to Auburn’s coming alive to beat Kentucky in the Midwest Regional final and advance to the Final Four for the first time.

Okeke, who tore his ACL in the Tigers’ victory over North Carolina on Friday night, got to see Auburn outlast the Wildcats 77-71 in overtime more with grit and determination than the impressive array of 3-point shots that carried them this far in the NCAA tournament.

“It gave our team a lift,” Tigers guard Jared Harper said of seeing Okeke join the Auburn bench. “He told us before the game that he was hurting a little bit and that he probably wasn’t going to make it in. But coach told us at halftime that Chuma was on the way to come support us.

“We needed that support.”

The Tigers repaid Okeke for it immediately after the game ended. Okeke, from his wheelchair, was the one who was pasted Auburn’s name on the Final Four line in a tournament bracket that had been delivered to midcourt. He was the first one to hoist the Midwest Regional championship bracket.

All the while, he wore around his neck the net his teammates had trimmed off one of the rims.

The Tigers changed their scheme little without Okeme, their top rebounder and third-leading scorer. They used a big-man rotation that included Anfernee McLemore, Austin Wiley, Danjel Purifoy and Horace Spencer. They allowed the Tigers not to win the rebounding battle, but at least stay within a reasonable range at 41-37.

Nine Tigers played double-digit minutes.

“That’s trust,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “[Former coach] Dr. Tom Davis taught me that you don’t shorten your bench in the playoffs or in tournament time. You trust the rest of those guys. We played our rotations.’

“There’s no question we missed Chuma, because you can’t replace him. He’s our most valuable player. He’s kind of our go-to guy, other than Jared or Bryce Brown. But they’ve got confidence in Anfernee, Austin, Danjel and Horace. [With] that confidence going in, our guys didn’t think ‘We can’t win without him.’ We may miss him but the other guys will step up.”

Rather than invent something new to combat Kentucky without Okeke, Pearl instead challenged the Tigers to win their individual battles and they responded. PJ Washington had a big game for the Wildcats with 28 points and 13 rebounds.

Other than Washington, Kentucky struggled to score. Tyler Herro, Kentucky’s second-leading scorer during the season, was held to seven points, mostly by the smothering defense of Samir Doughty.

“He just took it on himself to make sure [Herro] wasn’t going to get great looks and that then made them go to Washington almost exclusively,” Pearl said.

On offense, the Tigers didn’t make their usual barrage of three-point shots. They had just seven, a low number for Auburn, because Kentucky was switching on the perimeter and pressuring the Tigers off the arc. Harper with 26 points and Brown with 24 were the only Tigers to score in double figures.

“We just looked to make the right plays at all times, whether or not it’s a three or a mid-ranger [or] trying to get to the basket,” said Harper, who made 7-of-18 shots but made all 11 of his free throws. “We had to drive and get downhill, make tough twos and continue to play our game.”

Brown made great use of shorter jumpers by frequently driving to the basket and pulling up for his shots. He was 8-of-12, including 4-of-7 from three.

“I took what the defense gave me,” he said. “I tried to stop on a dime and pull up for my mid-range shot because they were running me off the three-point line as well. That looked to be one of the only shots I was able to get late in the second half.”

The Tigers knew Okeke wouldn’t play, but they didn’t expect to see him at the Sprint Center at all. He told Pearl and his teammates he would remain at the team hotel, where he would watch the game with family members on TV. Brown said Okeke told him the knee was hurting too much for him to make the trip. He was also facing the long flight to Alabama and then surgery on Tuesday.

Whether the pain in his knee subsided or the pain of watching on TV was too much, he changed his mind. And while his arrival seemed to give the Tigers a boost, they had him on their minds even during his absence.

“Coming into the game, we said this is all for Chuma,” Harper said. “Going to the Final Four and trying to compete for a national championship is all for Chuma. He put so much on the line for us this year.”

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