AUBURN, Ala. – As the final seconds ticked away and the clock hit zero, confetti shot out onto the court at Neville Arena. A blizzard of orange and blue engulfed the Auburn players. And then one by one, they climbed the ladder and cut off a piece of the net, each taking with them a piece of history.
This 2021-22 Auburn team was the SEC regular season champion.
It was a similar feeling on March 31, 2019. Auburn beat Kentucky in overtime, and the players each cut down a piece of the net in Kansas City to celebrate winning the Midwest Regional and securing the program’s first trip to the Final Four. For Jared Harper, Bryce Brown, Anfernee McLemore and the others on that team, it was the second time cutting down nets in less than a month. The same group also won the SEC Tournament championship that season.
But that team was built differently. Brown was in his fourth year at Auburn, Harper in his third. Nearly everybody was back from the year before when the Tigers won the SEC regular season crown and played in the NCAA Tournament. This year’s Auburn team was primarily assembled last spring, and five of the top six guys in the rotation were all new this season, including the team’s top four scorers.
Different hometowns, different backgrounds, different skill sets. Yet, they all came to Auburn with one common goal.
“Our goal was to win a national championship,” said guard Zep Jasper, a graduate transfer from College of Charleston. “BP (Bruce Pearl) recruited us to all get along with each other. He didn't recruit players to be selfish. There's nothing like having team players on a team, players who want to win. I think the way BP recruited us – he recruited us to be dogs, he recruited us to win a national championship.”