'A massive achievement’: Network announcers applaud Auburn

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Wade Rackley/Auburn Athletics

Bruce Pearl and Jim Nantz

MINNEAPOLIS – In 29 years doing Final Four play-by-play for CBS, Jim Nantz has seen it all and called it all.

But not even the venerable Nantz has come across anything resembling Auburn's one shining moment in the NCAA Tournament.

"What they've done is unprecedented," Nantz said Friday after Auburn's practice at U.S. Bank Stadium, on the eve of the Tigers' first Final Four game. "Some people have written that Arizona back [in '97] also won a championship going through Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina, but some of those games for Arizona were at the Final Four. This team accomplished that on the road to the Final Four."

The Tigers defeated, in succession, Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky to reach the Final Four. The Jayhawks (three), Tar Heels (six) and Wildcats (eight) have combined for 17 NCAA Tournament championships.

"To get to this stage, if you added up all of the national championships of those three schools, they beat more national champions, if you will, than any team in the history of the tournament to make it here," Nantz said. "It's a massive achievement."

Auburn's 12-game win streak, including the Tigers' four-victories-in-four-days march to the SEC Tournament championship, impressed Greg Gumbel, CBS' studio host since 1998.

"Certainly a lot of intestinal fortitude on their part," Gumbel said. "They were not thought to be as good as they turned out to be. They certainly weren't considered to be the cream of the crop in their conference, and yet, they stood out. They've played well, and even in the loss of their best player, they've been outstanding. I happen to like Bruce Pearl, personally, and I hope that they do well from here on."

Grant Hill, who along with Bill Raftery, will join Nantz on the CBS broadcast, won back-to-back national championships at Duke in 1991 and 1992. His assist on Christian Laettner's game-winning shot in the '92 East Regional final in Duke's 104-103 win over Kentucky endures as one of college basketball's signature plays.

"I think Bruce Pearl has this team playing at a high level," Hill said. "To win as many games down the stretch as they've won, who they've beaten to get here, some real blue bloods in the game. The way they play. They play fast, they've played confident, they're very disruptive. But the confidence that they have and the belief, I think ultimately the mental toughness.

"If you looked at this team earlier in the year, you wouldn't think, but to put it together at the right time. That Kentucky loss was a huge loss at Kentucky, and from then on, they've been as good as any team, so that, to me, shows mental toughness, being able to bounce back. Use that as a source of motivation. And now, you have a team that believes, and that belief has gotten them this far and it could get them to Monday night raising that trophy.

"To take this program that I don't think historically was looked at as a top-tier program and to now say, 'We're here, we belong, and we need to be on this stage,' it's a credit to Bruce Pearl. It's a credit to the character of the guys he has in his locker room."

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