SAN ANTONIO — As Florida stormed back to erase Auburn basketball's eight-point halftime lead — and eventually beat the Tigers 79-73 — in Saturday's Final Four contest at the Alamodome, the Tigers' head coach saw a tired bunch.
Following the defeat, Bruce Pearl said fatigue played a factor in the result, and that was by way or depth, or lack thereof.
"We got down to seven guys," Pearl said. "That's not enough. We just did not have enough help off the bench. I think, to take a little heat off of Johni (Broome), we scored great in the first half with our two-point baskets. We went through him, and he did great. I don't know whether we got away from it a little bit, but we only had a handful of two-point baskets in the second half."
Both Broome and Chad Baker-Mazara were playing through injuries, with the former reportedly facing both an elbow and ankle injury. Before the game, CBS' Tracy Wolfson reported that Baker-Mazara, who played with a brace on his left hand, had torn a ligament in his thumb.
Auburn's rotation, which usual ...
