Final Four of No. 1 seeds: Auburn tops Michigan State for last men's March Madness spot
ATLANTA – The NCAA men’s basketball tournament chalk-fest will continue all the way to San Antonio, Texas.
For just the second time in the sport’s history, all four No. 1 seeds have advanced to the Final Four, punctuated by Auburn’s 70-64 victory here Sunday over No. 2 seed Michigan State in the South Regional final.
It sets up an all-SEC showdown on Saturday between the league’s regular-season champion in Auburn and its tournament champion, Florida, for a spot in the national title game opposite either Duke or Houston.
And it confirms what has been apparent for much of the season in the efficiency numbers and other predictive metrics: In college basketball this year, four teams truly stood above the rest.
Still, it’s rare to play a one-and-done tournament without at least one of the top seeds stepping on a rake somewhere along the way. The last time a tournament bracket held so true to regular-season form was 2008, when Kansas beat Memphis for the championship – also in San Antonio – while top seeds UCLA and North Carolina reached the Final Four.
It will be the second Final Four trip both for Auburn and coach Bruce Pearl, whose team got there in 2019 only to lose on free throws with 0.6 seconds left to eventual champion Virginia.
"We couldn't be happier," Pearl said. "I felt going in like we were better. I felt like I had better players. Now we're going to the Final Four.
"We're a football school, we are. Don't ever forget that. But we're an everything school, too."
While any deep NCAA Tournament run is notable for Auburn, a program that hadn’t been part of March Madness for 15 years before Pearl arrived, this one has been expected for months and only hit one potential speed bump in the postseason.
That came with 10:37 remaining when forward Johni Broome, a national player of the year candidate, fell awkwardly to the floor after a collision near the rim. Broome, who won the South Region’s most outstanding player award, had 22 points on 9-of-12 field goals at that moment and quickly went to the locker room for evaluation while holding his right elbow and limping slightly.
Broome returned to the game with 5:29 left but still appeared to be moving a bit gingerly on a left ankle that he has been managing since January when he suffered a significant sprain after landing on a teammate's foot and missed two games.
"They checked my arm out, the doc said nothing’s wrong, you’re good, nothing serious," Broome said. "So at that moment I just wanted to help my teammates and if that’s coming back out and playing and hitting one shot and grabbing a rebound I was going to do it. Dylan (Cardwell) needed a break so I went out for a couple minutes. I wanted to help us win."
Said Pearl: "I didn't get any diagnosis. When Johni came out, I just asked, 'Are you good to go?' He said he was, so I said, 'Get your ass in there.' I think we won't really know until tomorrow to see what that was and whether it's a slight hyperextension or whatever. I bet he'll be pretty sore tomorrow."
In the end, Broome’s presence down the stretch didn’t particularly matter as Auburn had this one well in hand for most of the second half in front of a highly-charged crowd at State Farm Arena, roughly 100 miles from the Auburn campus.
From the opening tip Sunday, Auburn did not look like a team susceptible to getting upset. Unlike their Sweet 16 victory, when they had to come from nine points down in the second half to beat Michigan, Auburn took control early with a 17-0 run and never really let the Spartans get back in the game.
Michigan State briefly got within 35-30 early in the second half, but the lack of playmaking ability from its guards and overall struggle to shoot from the perimeter doomed their chances against an athletically superior Auburn team.
The Spartans shot 34% and 7 of 23 from the 3-point line, struggling to create the kind of quality looks that came relatively easily for Auburn. Even when Michigan State had a handful of open perimeter shots, they couldn't make enough to put much game pressure on the Tigers. Jase Richardson, the Spartans’ star freshmen, struggled to get his 11 points (4-of-13). Michigan State's other guards combined to shoot 7-for-31.
Auburn finished 26-of-61 the field, with freshman Tahaad Pettiford adding 10 points.