March Madness: Auburn rediscovering midseason form as world-beating bully

March Madness: Auburn rediscovering midseason form as world-beating bully

ATLANTA — Here’s the thing about Auburn: every day, in every way, it’s chaos personified. You think you’ve got the Tigers figured out and pinned down, and then they’ll drop a Kick-Six or a Prayer at Jordan-Hare on you … or maybe they’ll just go on a 34-8 run that debones your entire team. Give them room to move, and they might trip over their own feet … or they might just ruin your entire season.

Auburn stormed to the Elite Eight on Friday night, defeating Michigan 78-65 in a game that somehow felt much closer and yet not nearly as competitive as the score would indicate. After 30 minutes of chaotic basketball that veered from devastating to comical, the Tigers stopped screwing around with the Wolverines and just flat-out stomped them. Auburn rode the delirious wave of its thousands of fans in attendance, and made it very clear: When this team is on, there’s not much that can switch them off.

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With about a minute left in the NCAA tournament game, the outcome already assured, freshman Tahaad Pettiford dribbled upcourt with one hand and motioned for the Tigers faithful to get louder with the other. They obliged, filling State Farm Arena with rafter-raising “It’s great! To be! An Au-burn Tiger!” chants.

There was a bit of poetic justice at work there with Pettiford handling the ball in the closing seconds, because he — along with Johni Broome and Denver Jones — hauled the Tigers to a statement victory. Auburn flipped a nine-point deficit into a lead in just two and a half minutes midway through the second half, a vicious and overwhelming surge that Michigan had no hope of countering.

No play summed up Auburn’s victory quite like Pettiford’s most spectacular shot, a falling fadeaway that somehow dropped through the net just as he hit the ground:

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