March 21, 2018
By Greg Ostendorf
AuburnTigers.com
SAN DIEGO -- Shortly after Sunday's loss to Clemson in second round of the NCAA Tournament, Bruce Pearl walked into the locker room and immediately went to the whiteboard where he wrote down three words.
"Adversity reveals character"
That's been the theme for this Auburn team all season long. They faced adversity when Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy were held out prior to the season. They faced adversity from the analysts and writers, who counted the Tigers out from the beginning. They faced adversity when starting big man Anfernee McLemore was lost for the season in February.
The latest adversity to confront Auburn was that 31-point loss to Clemson. How will the Tigers respond? What will be the mentality be heading into the offseason?
"One of the things that we did last year in winning 18 games and coming up short for postseason is we examined where we failed, and we fixed all the areas that we needed to fix," Pearl said. "And as a result, we had a much better year. We will look at the same thing going into next season. Where are the areas we came up short? We'll fix it and not get beat the same way."
As disappointing as that 31-point loss was to finish the season, there's more buzz surrounding the Auburn basketball program than there's been in quite some time.
After the game, Pearl mentioned that Wiley, Mustapha Heron and maybe one other player might test the NBA waters this offseason. However, if everybody comes back, this team will be considered one of the favorites to repeat as SEC champions.
ESPN's Myron Medcalf took it one step further in his "recruit and return" piece he wrote for Auburn.
"If this group comes back for another season, the Tigers will enter the year as a serious threat to win the national championship," Medcalf wrote.
Crazy, right? Maybe not when you consider that prior to Anfernee McLemore's injury, Auburn was 23-3, 11-2 in the conference and ranked No. 10 nationally. As for McLemore, he believes he's only 2-to-3 months away from starting back with basketball activities again, which would give him a few months to get his body right before the beginning of the 2018-2019 season.
It's also not that crazy when you consider that the Tigers could potentially add Wiley, Purifoy and VCU transfer Samir Doughty to the group that won the SEC regular-season championship.
"It's exciting to know that you can get all those guys back and all of us back," Heron said.
"I'm definitely excited for what's going to happen next season," added sophomore point guard Jared Harper. "You have people that came in last year, came in this year -- our chemistry was good this year. Just think another year how much better our chemistry could be altogether. It's definitely something to look forward to."
"With everybody coming back next year, we have a lot of talent on the roster," McLemore said. "We can use this as a learning experience, kind of a stepping stone to propel us to greater success next season. I feel like this stings a little bit, but we can use it to move forward and get better."
But can you really put Auburn in the same breath as national championship for basketball? It's not a basketball program.
This season's ticket sales say otherwise. Auburn basketball increased single-game ticket sales by 72 percent from last season. They sold out seven of the nine SEC home games, which is the most sellouts in a season since Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum was sold out 16 times during the 2000-2001 campaign. And they had a total attendance of 131,537 in 16 home games with an average of 8,221 per game -- the highest in the history of Auburn Arena.
Can you imagine what those numbers might look like next season?
With demand for tickets in 2018-2019 expected to return to an all-time high, Auburn is already encouraging fans to secure their seat for next season by making a $150 per seat donation to become a Tigers Unlimited men's basketball donor. You can click here to make a non-refundable donation or contact Tigers Unlimited directly at (855) 282-2010 ext. 2.
But regardless of which players return or where Auburn is ranked to begin next season, Pearl wants to keep that us-against-the-world mentality that motivated the Tigers throughout this past season. After all, adversity reveals character.
"You guys are champions," Pearl told his player in the locker room. "You separated yourself from one of the best conferences in the country when nobody else thought you could. Now let's build on that. Put that chip back on our shoulder again and back-to-back this thing up."
Greg Ostendorf is a Senior Writer for AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @greg_ostendorf