Final Four arrival: Auburn's blue-collar backcourt beats blue bloods

Final Four arrival: Auburn's blue-collar backcourt beats blue bloodsFinal Four arrival: Auburn's blue-collar backcourt beats blue bloods
Cat Wofford/Auburn Athletics

MINNEAPOLIS – If you can't join 'em, beat 'em.

Overlooked as high school players by college basketball's biggest brand names, Bryce Brown and Jared Harper used the snub as motivation, putting their own twist on that old saying.

"We wouldn't have wanted it any other way," said Harper after the Tigers' run to the Final Four through the blueblood gauntlet of Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky.

"It's a great feeling knowing that not many of us were recruited by those schools. I feel like we're a great team, we play well together."

Combining for 50 points in Auburn's 77-71 overtime victory vs. Kentucky to win the NCAA Tournament's Midwest Region, Harper and Brown have led Auburn to the program's first Final Four, two wins away from a national championship.

"Our team has been proving itself all year and all last year," Harper said "It's not going to be a change. We're going to continue to do that."

The Tigers (30-9) play Virginia (30-3) Saturday at 5:09 p.m. CT at U.S. Bank Stadium.

"I don't want to go home," Brown said. "I don't want to be finished. I love my guys, I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. This is it, last two games of the season. I want to win the national championship."

Brown is averaging 18.3 points per game in the NCAA Tournament, shooting 46.9% (15-for-32) from 3-point range. Harper is averaging 17.5 points in four tournament games while shooting 90% from the free-throw line.

With third-leading scorer Chuma Okeke out against Kentucky, Auburn's backcourt took over in the second half and in overtime.

"Our quickness," Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. "Jared Harper, Bryce Brown, at the end of the day, got those guys matched up, and boy they made plays. I don't think it was any great scheme or any great coaching, just get the ball to your best players."

By becoming the only team in NCAA Tournament history to defeat Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky in consecutive games along with becoming Auburn's only team to win 30 games in a season, the backcourt mates have left their mark.

"This is big for our basketball program," Harper said. "A lot of us came here to be able to make this history that we're making right now. Our goals this year: compete for a national championship. That's what we're going to do."

"It means so much," Brown said. "Things you dream of. When I first came to Auburn, it's not something I envisioned. I feel like this team has come such a long way. It means so much to us. It means so much to the seniors."

You won't find Bryce Brown and Jared Harper on All-America teams. But you will find their images throughout the team hotel at the Final Four in Minnesota, nearly 1,200 miles from Auburn Arena. Eager to prove to the nation what they believe: despite what the recruiting rankings and postseason honors indicate, they form college basketball's best backcourt.

"Definitely true," Harper said. "I've thought that from the jump. How hard of a worker Bryce is, I'm a hard worker myself, and we play well off one another. We're a very experienced backcourt, we've been together for three years now."

Blue blood? More like blue-collar. The ideal fit for a university with a creed that extols the virtue of work, hard work.

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer