AUBURN, Ala. – Looking back one year later, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl stands by his postgame comment, when he said Auburn's 89-75 win over Kansas "really wasn't an upset."
It was the first takedown in the Tigers' "new blood vs. blue bloods" march to the Final Four through Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky and their combined 17 NCAA Tournament championships.
"I thought the better team won tonight," Pearl said on March 23, 2019 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Bryce Brown scored 25 points to lead Auburn to its first Sweet 16 appearance since 2003 in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
"One of the things I've always believed in is being really honest with my players," said Pearl, pointing out that Kansas played without the injured Udoka Azubuike, an AAU teammate of Jared Harper who would go on to become the Big 12 Player of Year in 2019-20.
"This is not a knock against Kansas. We were the better team a year ago. And I think Bill Self would admit that in the sense that he knew it wasn't an upset. Now, we played great. We jumped on them and we made every shot. Chuma Okeke's matchup against [Dedric] Lawson was really important. Lawson was a terrific college player, but Chuma had the ability to stay in front of him.
"Their guards were younger, and our guards, Jared Harper and Bryce Brown, were veteran guards. While nationally it was an upset, those of us that followed really closely recognized that we were the better team."
Brown's first two 3-pointers came in a 25-second span, giving Auburn a double-digit lead before 5 minutes had elapsed. He scored 17 points in the first half, helping the Tigers take a 51-25 halftime lead.
"He'd done it on the big stage, but to do it against Kansas – and look, he was feeling it," Pearl said. "If he could see it, he could make it. That was a huge confidence builder for us.
"I thought the other thing too about our matchup is Kansas and North Carolina both like to play fast. They brought out the best in us.
"I'm so proud to have coached that team. For Bill Self to walk off that court and go, 'Gosh, that's a really good team,' and having earned the respect of a coach like Bill Self, that was big."
Impact player: "Downtown" Bryce Brown
Auburn's starting guards combined for 43 points and nine of the Tigers' 13 3-pointers. Brown was especially lethal, sinking his first five 3s including four in a 3-minute span that amounted to a first-round knockdown.
"I honestly felt it in warmups," said Brown, who made 7 of 11 3-point attempts in the game. "The touch I had, nice soft touch just releasing it. My teammates, they hit me in unbelievable spots. They hit me at times when I wasn't even open. They've really liked when I catch and shoot the ball and that's what I did. It just worked out in our favor.
"It's a great feeling. I wish it could be like that all the time, of course. It's just how it feels sometimes. When I'm shooting like that, I just feel like the rim is so wide open, I just feel like I can't miss."
Brown nearly doubled Auburn's previous NCAA Tournament record of four 3-pointers in a March Madness game. His 372 career 3-pointers (as of March 23, 2019) ranked second in SEC history. He would conclude his Auburn career with 382, second only to Tennessee's Chris Lofton (431), who also played for Pearl.
Plays of the game: Brown's binge of early 3s
Bryce Brown made four 3-pointers in the first seven minutes to put Auburn ahead 23-9. His fifth 3 gave Auburn a 40-20 lead at the 6:41 mark.
"It starts on the defensive side of the ball with us," Brown said. "Typically when we start off hot on the defensive end, we start off hot on the offensive end. We get out in transition, knock down shots. If we continue to do that, we'll continue to win ballgames and go even farther."
Key stat: 26-1 fast-break point advantage in first half
The Tigers dismantled the Jayhawks in transition from the get-go, leading to a 26-1 advantage in fast-break points in the first half, accounting for nearly all of Auburn's 26-point halftime lead.
While Auburn enjoyed a 12-1 lead in points off turnovers in the opening half, the rest of the Tigers' transition buckets came of Jayhawks misses, with Harper dishing out four assists. Brown eviscerated Kansas with surgical precision, hitting his first four 3-point attempts, all in transition, to help the Tigers take a 23-9 lead at the 13:06 mark and forcing KU coach Bill Self to call a timeout in a futile attempt to suppress the onslaught.
In their own words
"We're awfully excited to advance to the Sweet 16. We're just grateful, all of us, for the opportunity to represent Auburn in this kind of competition." – Bruce Pearl
"It was a goal of ours to be able to come in and make history. That was the reason for coming to Auburn, to be able to do that. We played really well today and we're ready to advance even farther." – Jared Harper
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer