What did Bruce Pearl have to say after Auburn's win over Georgia?

What was Auburn's head coach thinking after the Tigers' convincing win over the Bulldogs?

The No. 14 Auburn Tigers picked up a dominant 97-76 win over the Georgia Bulldogs on the road.

What did Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl have to say after the game?

"It was a great win for us," Pearl said. "Georgia has been playing really well. Mike (White) has still got them playing really hard and there was a big prize on our head."

Pearl talked about how Auburn had to adjust to playing without Jaylin Williams.

"Coming in without Jaylin Williams, we had to change some things up," Pearl said. "So, we put three different guys in the starting lineup. Starting Chad Baker-Mazara — Chad Baker-Mazara was the best player on the floor tonight. He was certainly the best player on the floor tonight. Trusted him with the ball in his hands as a playmaker. Obviously, he makes shots, gets fouls, makes free throws. He shot seven of the 16 free throws that we had tonight. Made them all."

Pearl talked about Aden Holloway having a big game and overcoming recent struggles.

"We started Aden Holloway, just to see if we could kinda get him going," Pearl said. "Two things on that: One, nobody is harder on himself than Aden. Aden is one of the best freshman point guards in the country. He is. When he hasn't played well, hasn't shot it well, for a bunch of games — that could have a young man lose his confidence. You spend time on social media, and you're disappointing lots of people. Nobody's more disappointed than Aden."

"But, to his credit, he has stayed in the gym. He's kept his attitude, really, pretty good, considering the lack of success he's had. But the team was still having success without him, and he was OK. It speaks a lot to his character. He stayed in it. He stayed in it. If we can get him to be in a situation where he's feeling better about himself, that's a real positive thing."

Pearl talked about his respect for Georgia head coach Mike White.

"We really respect Mike's ability as an offensive coach," Pearl said. "We just didn't want to guard a lot of the good man-to-man offense that Georgia has. We're just not going to guard it. You can't guard it, or it's hard to guard. The zone helped keep them off balance."

Auburn returns to action on Wednesday night when it takes on the No. 5 Tennessee Volunteers on the road at 6 p.m. CT. The television broadcast can be found on ESPN2 and the Auburn Sports Network broadcast can be streamed anywhere on the Auburn Athletics app.


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Daniel Locke
DANIEL LOCKE

Daniel is a staff writer for four Sports Illustrated/FanNation sites: Auburn Daily, Braves Today, Inside the Marlins and Wildcats Today. Additionally, he serves as the Auburn Athletics beat reporter for 1819 News. He is a junior at Auburn University majoring in journalism.