For the first 28 minutes of Auburn men’s basketball’s Sweet 16 game against Michigan, the display was anything but efficient or pretty.
But with the season on the line, Auburn proved why it’s the No. 1 overall seed. The Tigers won the game 78-65 and now move on to the Elite Eight to face Michigan State Sunday afternoon.
Friday’s game started with an extended flurry of turnovers, missed shots and overall sloppy play, but ended with Auburn yet again surviving and advancing.
Here are three takeaways from Auburn’s Sweet 16 win:
Sloppy from the start
The turnover bug hit both teams early on in the game, making for a sloppy start to the contest.
Auburn and Michigan combined for 18 turnovers in the first half, with many of them being live ball turnovers. It created a frantic pace for parts of the opening 20 minutes, something the Wolverines are a little more accustomed to.
Turnovers haven’t been much of an issue for Auburn this season. The Tigers came into the game with the fifth-lowest turnover percentage in the country, per KenPom. Auburn had 10 in the first half against Michigan, two more than the Wolverines.
Michigan came into the game with more of a turnover problem, ranking 324th in turnover percentage out of 364 Division I teams.
Auburn cleaned it up in the second half, at least enough to pull away. The turnover battle finished pretty even, but Auburn claimed a 10-point edge in points off turnovers, helping decide the game.
Winning on the glass
Against a lineup as big as Michigan’s, rebounding was both a key and a concern coming into the game for Auburn.
The Tigers have struggled on the glass at times this season against bigger front lines, and many of Auburn’s losses came against teams that were longer and more physical.
Michigan’s starting lineup featured two true centers in Danny Wolf and Vladislav Goldin, but Auburn held its own on the boards. The Tigers grabbed 19 offensive rebounds and held Michigan to just 10.
The offensive rebounds helped Auburn stay in the game when the offense was both sloppy and inefficient early in the game.
“Step up”
When Auburn lost its regular season finale to Alabama, head coach Bruce Pearl brought up two words that Auburn will need in the postseason: “Step-up.”
In that game, he referenced Alabama forward Grant Nelson stepping up to score 23 points en route to Alabama’s buzzer-beating win in Neville Arena.
When Pearl’s group found itself down by nine with 12:26 to go in the Sweet 16, it needed the step-up Pearl was talking about going into the postseason.
Fortunately for the Tigers, they got, and then some.
Auburn went on a 20-2 run after that moment, spurred by big buckets from Johni Broome, Denver Jones and Tahaad Pettiford. It eventually led to Auburn outscoring Michigan 48-36 in the second half, pulling away with a 13-point victory.
Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at prauterkus@al.com
