BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The legends Classic at Barclays Center saw Auburn serve notice: they will be heard from in the SEC. The Tigers dominated New Mexico in the semifinal. The championship saw a tight first half, but in the second twenty minutes, Auburn pulled away, wearing down Richmond to earn the title.
Scores:
Richmond 62, Wisconsin 52
Auburn 84, New Mexico 59
Consolation:
New Mexico 59, Wisconsin 50
Championship:
Auburn 79, Richmond 65
All-Tournament:
Austin Wiley, Auburn (MVP)
Nate Reuvers, Wisconsin
Jacob Gilyard, Richmond
Grant Golden, Richmond
Samir Doughty, Auburn
Wisconsin hoped to at least get a shot in the championship game. Instead the Badgers exited Brooklyn 0-2 with a number of questions to answer.
“In both games I thought we were good enough defensively,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said following the consolation. “But you have to be able to score, obviously.”
Facing Richmond in the semis, the Badgers shot 17 for 50 from the floor. Against New Mexico, it was a 18 of 53 outing, including 2 for 26 (8 percent) from beyond the arc. For the two nights, Wisconsin shot a collective 35 for 103 (34 percent). A puzzled and perplexed Gard added, “How do you shoot it so well the last week or two then, come here and can’t throw it in the ocean?”
In the title game, Richmond stayed with Auburn, trailing 34-33 at the end of the first half. In the second half, size and speed proved the difference. “They wore us down that second half,” Richmond coach Chris Mooney said. “They also did a job on us on the boards.” For the game Auburn held a 44-34 rebounding edge; on the offensive glass, the Tigers showed an 18-12 advantage.
One of the side effects of rebounding on offense is extending the possession and often getting a good close-in shot. Another is drawing fouls. Little surprise Auburn attempted 31 from the charity stripe to the nine of Richmond.
Tempo was in Wisconsin’s favor against New Mexico, but oddly enough, the slower pace helped the Lobos. “We watched clips (of the Auburn game) and saw we were playing too fast,” was the observation of New Mexico coach Dr. Paul Weir. “Hopefully it was a little bit of us growing, learning and becoming a better basketball team.”
New Mexico and Wisconsin played at a 63 possession pace in their consolation contest. The Lobos committed 13 turnovers, a 21 percent turnover rate. That TO rate is a bit high, yet it was an improvement over the prior night. Against Auburn, in a decidedly uptempo 76 possession game, the Lobos committed 24 turnovers for a painfully high 32 percent TO rate.
Wisconsin had their share of turnover issues in Brooklyn. Over the two games Greg Gard’s club handed out 13 assists while turning the ball over 27 times. “Give New Mexico credit,” Gard said after the Badgers were forced into a 14-turnover game. “I thought there were times we played too fast. A few travels that are very uncharacteristic of us…..We have to continue to reduce the number of turnovers.”
Samir Doughty, the leading scorer in the championship with 23 points, is quite familiar to Richmond’s Chris Mooney. Doughty is a Philadelphia native, like Mooney, and played at VCU before heading to Auburn. Doughty is a classic slasher who broke down the Spiders’ defense by getting in the lane. For good measure, the Tigers’ guard grabbed five rebounds and knocked down two three-point shots.
Austin Wiley proved too much for Richmond to handle inside. The Auburn center scored 18 points, adding eight rebounds (four on the offensive end). Despite Wiley’s inside presence, Mooney pointed out Richmond showed a 46-42 edge on points in the paint. Their undoing though, was Auburn showing a 25-17 lead on second chance points.
Said it at the Atlantic 10 Tournament here last March and it bears repeating: I really admire the overall game of Grant Golden. The Richmond forward earned All-Tournament honors at the Legends Classic. In the championship, he played 22 minutes, before exiting with an ankle injury, scoring a team-high 14 points and tying Nathan Cayo for team rebounding honors with six.
Even before getting to Brooklyn, it was a bumpy road for New Mexico. “We went to UTEP and lost a heart-breaker,” Weir said. “Two days later we had to play a very big rivalry game against New Mexico state (a 78-77 Lobo victory). You wonder that being on the road if we were going to have that resiliency, but our guys battled back and were terrific. That’s just what we talked about post Auburn (game).”
Auburn has obviously warmed up to James Naismith’s game. Don’t kid yourself: football remains king in SEC country. Just after finishing his press conference following the championship, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl remarked, “now it’s on to the Iron Bowl.” Anyone even remotely following the college game in the fall knows what Pearl was implying.
“We didn’t have quite enough the second half, but overall I am pleased with the (two days) tournament. Overall our league (Atlantic 10) looks to be great this year and we have a chance to have a great season.” Richmond coach Chris Mooney following the championship game
“This was Auburn’s first regular season tournament title since 1984. We gave our team a pregame history lesson. Also, a Richmond team knocked Charles Barkley and Auburn out of the NCAA Tournament back in the Eighties. That was mentioned, too.” – Auburn coach Bruce Pearl
