Perspective: Auburn rises above dirty business of college basketball with a beautiful game
By Sally Jenkins Sally Jenkins Sports columnist Email Bio Columnist March 29 at 11:13 PM KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Under all the crud, the cash and the crackle of wiretaps, there was the quality of the game, and that made it all worth it. Auburn’s Sweet 16 victory over North Carolina was a matter of such pretty craftsmanship that it was cleansing.
You could judge them by those paper investigations, or you could judge them on the comportment and performances of their players — and only hope that every campus academic is as effective at imparting organized concepts, disciplined action and speedy decision-making under pressure as these coaches. “We love to teach. We all got in as teachers,” Pearl said. His team was Exhibit A. As Pearl said, “Ninety-nine percent of what we got is still really, really good.
But the Tar Heels were slowed by a flu bug that hit the day before the game — their leader through the postseason, Nassir Little, had a temperature of 100, and then Cameron Johnson came down with it, too, and was said to be throwing up in the postgame locker room. The result was that the Tigers beat them at their own pace. They were stealing, fast-breaking, shot-stroking fools who hit on 45.9 percent from three-point range.
How were the Tar Heels supposed to shut down the 6-foot-8, 230-pound Chuma Okeke, who was as soft-handed and smart from the outside as he was big? The only thing that finally stopped him was injury. Okeke already had a double-double with 15 minutes remaining , and his performance was becoming the game’s individual highlight when his left knee buckled as he landed awkwardly with 8:08 remaining. He was ushered out by the sportsmanlike salutes of the Tar Heels he had just decimated.
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