Last Saturday Auburn lost to Tennessee 70-65 in the SEC tourney semifinals but still earned an at-large bid to this week’s NCAA tournament. The Tigers had a losing season in 2021 but are now heading to the NCAA tourney for the 4th time in a row. Yesterday HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Auburn assistant coach Ira Bowman about being part of the greatest conference in the history of the sport and making the NCAA tourney.
You began your college career at Providence: why did you decide to transfer, and what made you choose Penn? I was recruited by Fran Fraschilla and then Rick Barnes went to Clemson. I was always a good student and 1 of my mentors suggested I look for a mix of high-level athletics/academics, which is how I found Penn.
Your college coach Fran Dunphy retired last week: what made him such a great coach, and what was the most important thing that you ever learned from him? I recall a saying: “You never care how much someone knows until you know how much they care”. He taught us life lessons every day and what sticks with me most beyond the X’s and O’s is a sense of gratitude. He is the humblest man I have ever been around.
In the 1995 NCAA tourney you scored 15 PTS off the bench in a 6-PT OT loss to Alabama: how close did you come to pulling off the upset, and where does Antonio McDyess’s performance (39 PTS/19 REB) rank among the greatest that you have ever seen in the postseason? For me it is the greatest performance I have ever seen because I witnessed it firsthand. We had a historic level of success and were nationally ranked that year. To have 3 guys from an Ivy League team make the NBA (Jerome Allen/Matt Maloney/myself) is incredible, but we just came up a couple of baskets short against a team with 5 future NBA players of its own.
In 1996 you led the conference with 444 PTS/142 AST/57 STL: how were you able to balance all the different aspects of your game? Our focus was always on winning, and I had great teammates/coaches. We came up a few games short of UCLA’s record winning streak, but we went undefeated in the Ivy League for 3 years in a row. We had a very good team during my junior year so in 1996 after Jerome/Matt had left Tim Krug and I were pushed into leadership roles. Coach Dunphy put me in a position to be successful and I am forever grateful to him.
That same year you were named conference POY, and last fall you were inducted into the Big 5 Hall of Fame: what did it mean to you to receive such outstanding honors? Any time you are recognized for your work on the court it is always humbling, but it was due to the sacrifice of others in addition to the countless hours of work I put in. The Big 5 is an esteemed basketball community and it has turned out some great players so I am proud of that honor.
You spent almost a decade playing pro basketball, including 17 games in the NBA: what is your favorite memory from your time with the 76ers/Hawks? My 1st welcome-to-the-NBA moment was going to Milwaukee and not playing, but our next game was in Madison Square Garden. I grew up nearby in Newark, NJ, and I remember checking into the game to guard Allan Houston. I also played with Allen Iverson, who is the best 6’ or under player in NBA history.
As an assistant to Bruce Pearl at Auburn you started this season 27-2 but have lost 3 of your last 4 games in March: what is the mood of the team like this week? We segment the year into 3 different parts. We did well in pre-conference play in Maui and beat Houston on the road. Winning the regular season SEC title was great, but after losing in the conference tourney we now have a whole new season ahead of us. We have tried to stay hungry/humble despite those 3 tough losses: we lost to Alabama in OT on a shot at the buzzer, on the road to a good Texas A&M team, and to Tennessee by 5 in the SEC semifinals. We are as confident as we have ever been and are focused on preparing for Alabama State.
On Selection Sunday the SEC received a record 14 bids: what is it like to be part of the greatest conference in the history of the sport? You do not feel that way when you are in the middle of it, but we try to make our guys feel prepared. In a league like this there are no nights off: the talent/competition is incredible. I think our league won around 88% of its non-conference games, and the league itself is a gauntlet, so you must endure the “monotony of preparation”. Hopefully our league does well this month, but we prepare for every team the same because anyone can beat you on any night.
How do you feel about being the #1 overall seed, and do you feel that your team is good enough to win it all? We wanted to see how good we were at the start of the season, and with all our games at neutral sites we are good enough to be where we are at right now. Every team in the NCAA tourney is either a champion of their own conference or a great team that did not win a title: to win 6 games in a row you need to win the 1st 1 and just keep advancing. Being the #1 overall seed is nice…but since we are in Lexington we might potentially have to play Louisville in their home state. Even if that happens, we just need to be 40 minutes better than our opponent.
You came to Auburn after spending 6 years as an assistant to Steve Donahue at your alma mater: I know you are focused on the task at hand…but considering that Steve was fired last week, what would you say if the Quakers asked you to replace him next month? My focus is solely on Auburn winning in the NCAA tourney. If Penn asked me then I would consider it, but my focus is on winning our 1st round game on Thursday.
