giving up a lead to #4 Auburn is much different than giving up a lead to, say, a MAC school.
We gave up a 23 point lead to A&M last year during the Thanksgiving tournament. That sucked b/c A&M wasn't good.
Auburn is good. Very good.
Many things are true at the same time.
Auburn looks legit #1 - elite. I was fearful going in that we would get outclassed the entire game. That first half - I couldn’t believe it - we looked SO good. And not like “lucky” good - just damn GOOD. And we missed several wide open 3’s, so we could have been up by more. Being up 16 at half and we absolutely looked the part.
EVEN THOUGH Auburn is elite, it still does suck blowing the lead so quickly. That was a REALLY bad stretch to start the half. And not an unlucky one - it was just bad. We played bad. We played with less intensity. And we gave Auburn a TON of confidence. Were we going to maintain a 16pt lead the entire half? Nope. But we were definitely good enough to win. And it absolutely sucks to blow a lead, as Auburn was the better/more intense team in that second half. We got dominated on the boards.
That is a bummer.
In summary - loss doesn’t hurt at all. Hell, we might even get praise for playing Auburn so close. They made just 1 more play! But make no mistake, that was a massive missed opportunity. It’s OK to admit that. And to top it off, Tamin re-aggregated something. Feel so bad for him, as he can’t catch a break.