NBC Sports spoke with a dozen coaches in the last two days to put together a scouting report for each of the teams in the Final Four.Â
The coaches were granted anonymity in exchange for honesty.Â
We started with Virginia. Up next, we have Auburn.
âTHEY WANT TO HOOPâ
There may not be a team in the country that looks like they are playing a sloppier brand of basketball than Auburn, but thatâs their wheelhouse. They practice that. They want to ugly-it-up because they know they can survive playing that way.Â
âAuburn wants to run, defense into offense. We picked our spots with them, and we felt like we could go in transition, but off makes or if it got ragged, slow it down. Fâ with them. The more itâs like a pickup game for Auburn, the better it is. They thrive in that. Their kids, they just want to hoop.â
âThere are three keys to beating Auburn: 1. No live-ball turnovers. 2. Defensive rebound, send four to the glass. 3. Guard the three point guard. The dilemma for us, weâre a good offensive rebounding team. We didnât send two back all year long, thatâs what we do. We take the risk crashing the glass, it was good for us.â
âFor the first time all year, we sent two back. Thatâs because of the respect we had for them spraying that thing shooting it so well. [Jared] Harper and [Bryce] Brown, itâs buddy ball. [Harper] looks for [Brown] every time, and [Brown] is so dangerous catching and shooting in transition.â
âThe transition game is lethal. They have multiple guys that can lead the break. Harper, Brown, [Samir] Daughty, [JâVon] McCormick all can lead the break. Anytime you donât have to rely on one guy to lead the break thatâs difficult to defend. They all can pull up in transition, and they are a really good one-pass-into-a-three team in transition.â
âWhoever is guarding Brown, he always needs to get back. Finding him is a big deal, whoever is guarding him, find him as quick as he can. You need to shadow him in transition, because itâs hard to put a shadow on the ball-handler with them because you donât know who itâs going to be.â
âThe key is that you must do is try and meet them early. When they get to halfcourt, be there. Get them to stop their momentum. If youâre just sitting back at the three point line, theyâre going to put it on you, driving and forcing one guy to help and start moving it around.â
âTheyâre so dangerous because they create rotations when there is no rotation to be had. Between McCormick and Harper, they just feel the slightest sense of a defender helping. They know where to make passes, and theyâre pinpoint passes, and they get the defense spinning. Once the defense is spinning, boom, boom, they get a three, then itâs a turnover and suddenly theyâre on a run and youâre dead.â

THE ULTIMATE GREEN LIGHT
Part of the reason that Pearl is able to get his guys to play as hard as they do is that they donât get chewed out for taking bad shots or missing shots.
âTheir players play with a great amount of confidence to be able to shoot it. Bruce [Pearl] doesnât believe in bad shots. Every time they shoot he wants them to feel like theyâre going in. He really encourages his guys to shoot, shoot, shoot. Even bad shots, thereâs no hesitation, just fire. That puts a great amount of stress on the defense.â
âAnytime there are four or five guys that can shoot, itâs hard to defend. Even Horace Spencer. Heâs a non-shooter and heâs shooting threes. At any point, they have five guys that will play with a heavy green-light to shoot the three-ball, and thatâs just hard to defend.â
âTheyâre just so explosive, and they feed off of that energy.â
THE PRESS IS UNIQUE
Auburn actually leads the nation in defensive turnover percentage and steal percentage, and since they press, in your head youâre probably picturing Shaka Smartâs âHavocâ or Bob Hugginsâ âPress Virginiaâ, but thatâs not what Auburn does.
âTheyâre known for turning you over, but when you break down the film, Iâve never seen anything like it. The press is a token press. Low risk, high reward. It drains the shot clock, it controls tempo, it gives a different look, but theyâre just trying to capitalize on silly mistakes. Donât be dumb, be organized and youâre fine.â
âBut they are so quick, so athletic and have a unique ability to deny quite a few passes in the halfcourt. They can really deny and push you out. Then when the ball is dribbled, they have such quick hands. They scrape the ball when people drive, they really get into those driving lanes and you know theyâre going to rake at it.â
âThis is when theyâre the best in transition. Off turnovers. Theyâre good off misses, they run off makes, they control tempo because they know when to push, they have multiple handlers, anyone can take the ball out. But when they turn you over? Thatâs when they make you pay.â
âThey do a great job of switching, of playing with active hands and of post defense. Theyâre not huge, but they do a really good job of keeping posts out of the paint. There was a clip late in the Kentucky game, [Horace] Spencer was fronting P.J. [Washington] and they called a foul on Auburn, but P.J. was posting two-feet inside the three-point line. Thatâs how far out they push you.â

LOSING OKEKE IS ENORMOUS
Chuma Okeke tore his ACL late in Auburnâs Sweet 16 win over North Carolina.
âHarper and Brown, thatâs as good of a backcourt as youâre going to find in the country, but Okeke is their best player. He is extremely talented and a dominant player. Inside, outside, he was dominating games down the stretch of the season. He could run isos at the elbow. He could play on the wing. He could play in the post.â
âTeams inevitably have to think about switching vs. Auburn because of how they shoot, and Okeke could take advantage of that with post sets. Bruce runs flex motion, and they have plays to get Okeke the ball in the post, and they donât get that with [Danjel] Purifoy or [Malik] Dunbar. [Austin] Wiley softens the blow a bit inside, but heâs a different player, and you arenât switching with him or Spencer. [Anfernee] McLemore, he ainât the same.â
âIf Iâm playing right now, Iâm making Purifoy and Dunbar and McLemore beat me. Iâm throwing everything at Harper and Brown and making it as tough as possible with those guys. Theyâre so cool. Harper is never, ever going to get rattled. He doesnât have a weakness. He can shoot it, drive both directions, handsy defender. And Brown is such a momentum guy, heâs dancing with the ball and if he makes a couple, youâre dead. They can still beat anyone if they get it going.â
âBut now you can focus more on Brown and Harper. Maybe you can take one of them away, face-guarding or whatever. Not as easy to do that when Okeke is out there. The other guys â Dunbar, Doughty, Purifoy â we were begging them to shoot a bunch of threes instead of the guards.â
THE BEST MATCHUP IS? AND THE WORST MATCHUP IS?
âVirginia is the worst. I have so much respect for how Tony plays. I know Texas Techâs numbers are off the chart defensively, but UVA is so systematic. Theyâre not going to get wild, they stay true to who they are, to themselves more than anyone will.â
âThe thing about Auburn is they make you matchup with them. And theyâre so explosive they can beat anyone.â