Auburn kept itself in the tournament with a 20-2 run in the second half that took the lead for good. Nicknamed “Auburn East,” Atlanta proved to be a massive geographical advantage over No. 5-seed Michigan as the two teams wrestled for the lead down the stretch.
The Tigers were expected to have the strongest crowd showing out of the four teams in Atlanta on Friday. Auburn’s home stadium, Neville Arena, is less than a two hour’s drive from State Farm Arena, about 110 miles away.
That’s much closer than fellow South Regional contestants Michigan, Michigan State and Ole Miss.
Auburn center Dylan Cardwell was just happy to see so many Auburn fans wearing orange. He said it stuck out more than navy blue and showed the massive attendance difference for the top-seeded Tigers compared to the maize-colored blots of Michigan fans.
“I just can’t imagine playing against that,” Cardwell said. “I’ve never seen a home-court advantage in March Madness like that.”
The Tigers might have been able to close their eyes and see the same picture in the second half. Auburn’s rocky start, headlined by 10 first-half turnovers, kept the Auburn crowd from truly erupting until the scoring run.
Freshman point guard Tahaad Pettiford cashed several eye-popping scores that sent most of State Farm Arena into a frenzy as the Tigers pulled away.
“Before tip, it seemed like a true road game,” Michigan center Danny Wolf said. “Obviously in the mid-to-late second half when they hit a few shots and the place erupted, that’s a huge momentum swing, especially when you have the crowd into it. But I thought we kind of pushed past that noise early on.”
Star center Johni Broome brought up the crowd on his own while describing Auburn’s comeback. Broome led the Tigers in points (22) and rebounds (16) but he credited defensive stops combined with crowd energy for the go-ahead momentum.
“Being honest, we were playing bad,” Broome said. “We were turning the ball over a lot, and we weren’t guarding, but we were still (in) the game.
“So everybody said, ‘Let’s get three stops.’ And three led into four and four led into five stops, and we went on a little run and the crowd got involved, and we started playing Auburn basketball.”
Auburn will hope for a similar showing from its local fans back at State Farm Arena on Sunday. The Tigers could certainly benefit from one more home-like crowd before a win would send them to San Antonio for the Final Four, over 880 miles away.
It could be the toughest win the Tigers have to earn all tournament as they face No. – seed Michigan State, which is making its third Elite Eight appearance in the last decade.
The Spartans are known for their rebounding and defending, and no doubt legendary coach Tom Izzo will try to give Auburn headaches with a physical fight.
It’s the kind of game – like most — that could be affected by having over 10,000 people’s noise and energy. Auburn and Michigan State will tip off at 5:05 p.m. Sunday in the last Elite Eight game of the tournament.
