The NCAA tournament is about basketball but also so much more: the parents, fans, bands, cheerleaders, etc. The Sweet 16/Elite 8 are taking place in 4 cities around the country and we could not be more excited to be there in person! HoopsHD is covering all the angles so you can look forward to an abundance of access in the days ahead. Jon Teitel continues our coverage from Atlanta with an Auburn breakout room interview.
The way it works is that Coach Pearl and his 5 starters start out on the podium while the rest of the team does interviews in the locker room:
Then Coach Pearl keeps going while each of his starters goes to their own breakout room:
I chose to go to the breakout room for Miles Kelly for a quick interview:
SR G Miles Kelly
You were born in Stone Mountain, GA (20 miles northeast of Atlanta) and transferred to Auburn from Georgia Tech (whose arena is 2 miles north of State Farm Arena): how has your homecoming been? It has gone even better than I expected…and hopefully we can win again on Sunday and make it to the Final 4.
You shot 39.4 3P% this year and tied Bryce Brown’s NCAA tourney school record with 7 3PM in your 1st round win over Alabama State, but you made only 1-7 3PM vs. Michigan: was it just a cold shooting night or did their defense do something different than you expected? This is a make-or-miss sport, but I am not worried about bouncing back in my next game because my confidence has never wavered.
You did have 3 STL/1 BLK in that game: what is the secret to playing great defense? I try to use my length to make my opponents uncomfortable.
Your teammate Johni Broome had 22 PTS/16 REB: where does he rank among the greatest college players that you have ever seen? He is the national POY for a reason: it speaks for itself. He is a playful/goofy guy. We are roommates on the road and like to have fun, but I am a neat freak while he will just throw his stuff on the floor!
What was the biggest factor in your win over the Wolverines on Friday? We had great energy and did not allow their guards to get many clean looks at the basket. We need to transfer that energy to our game on Sunday.
You are 1 of 4 SEC teams in the Elite 8 (Alabama/Auburn/Florida/Tennessee): what is it like to be part of the best conference in the history of the sport? It has been a dominant league all year and no games are a cakewalk. We might end up with all 4 teams in the Final 4 so that speaks volumes about how hard our league is.
What do you know about Michigan State? They have good guards: we watched a little film on them and will try to take them out of their looks.
Check back for a lot more access all week long!
