Auburn celebrates winning a championship, follows similar path to 2019 team

NASHVILLE – There’s no better feeling in sports than winning a championship. Auburn experienced that feeling Sunday with a victory in the title game of the SEC Tournament.

As the final seconds ticked away, head coach Bruce Pearl started to tear up.

“I lost my dad in August,” an emotional Pearl told Marty Smith after the game. “He was my biggest fan. This is for these kids. And how about the way Auburn showed up today. But for me, I’ve got to thank my father.”

Chad Baker-Mazara was emotional, too. After the game, the first-year Auburn player and native of Puerto Rico sat on the court with his back against the scorer’s table and couldn't hold back the tears while FaceTiming both his dad and his mom who were not able to be at the game.

“We did it,” he kept saying over and over again. “We did it.”

“I was on the phone with my dad,” Baker-Mazara said after the game. “Sadly, he couldn't make it up here today. I was just showing him that I made the All-Tournament Team. It was a special moment. I know they're super proud of me and very happy. I just wanted to share a moment with both of them because I miss them.”

There were other moments, too. Moments that will last forever.

Johni Broome and K.D. Johnson were doing snow angels in the piles of confetti that had fallen from the rafters when Auburn was presented with the trophy. Some of the players started dancing and singing “All I Do Is Win” with fans on the court while the team was cutting down the nets. 

Back in the locker room, the team turned up the music and continued the celebration.

“I feel like I’m in a dream right now,” said Chaney Johnson as he celebrated the title.

The team looked through the pictures and videos on social media of fans rolling Toomer’s Corner back in Auburn and were eager to get back on campus and join them.

Once the media had come through the locker room and Pearl had gotten done addressing the team – encouraging them to stay humble and hungry with the NCAA Tournament on deck – senior Chris Moore brought his teammates together. 

“Auburn on 3, Champions on 6,” Moore said as the players put their hands in.

The Tigers were SEC champions. No better feeling than that.

“This is the reason why I came here,” Broome said. “This right here, to share it with my teammates. It’s super special. I’m glad to celebrate with my teammates."

“That was the whole plan, the reason why I wanted to come here and be a part of this,” echoed Denver Jones. “I wanted to be a part of this winning organization, and I wanted to be a part of the team that BP was bringing in.”

“It’s a blessing,” Jaylin Williams said. “For the last name on the back of my jersey, for my hometown, just everybody. For my teammates. I’m happy we won this, and I’m happy for those guys. I always want my teammates to be happy at the end of the day. It’s special.”

For some Auburn fans, it probably felt like déjà vu watching the confetti fall and the players cut down the nets. Five years ago, in the same building, the Tigers won the SEC Tournament and celebrated a championship.

There were some similarities between the two weekends. Auburn beat both South Carolina and Florida on its way to a title in 2019 and in 2024. The No. 1 seed got knocked off in the quarterfinals both years (LSU in 2019, Tennessee in 2024). The final scores in the two title games were nearly identical with the Tigers beating Tennessee 84-64 in 2019 and then winning 86-67 over Florida on Sunday.

Even the postgame celebration this year had moments that brought you back to 2019 when it was Anfernee McLemore and Samir Doughy on the floor doing snow angels in the confetti or Malik Dunbar and Horace Spencer hoisting the trophy on the stage as the confetti shot up around them.

And on Sunday, as associate head coach Steven Pearl showed Jalen Harper – the brother of 2019 point guard Jared Harper – how to cut down the nets, it was another flashback to 2019 when he shouted out similar instructions to Bryce Brown.

“Cut the bottom,” Pearl told Brown in 2019. “We did this last year. What are you doing? Cut the bottom of the other one now. There you go.”

That SEC Tournament championship was only the beginning for that 2019 team. They carried that momentum into the NCAA Tournament and won four straight games, beating Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky along the way, to advance to the program’s first ever Final Four.

This year’s Auburn team has that same momentum now heading into March Madness.

“It feels good,” Williams said. “That ’19 run they went to a Final Four. Hopefully we get there and win. This team is different. We’re together through the ups and downs, and if we stick together the rest of the year, I don’t see anybody else beating us.”