While Coach Krzyzewski praised Auburn’s basketball team after the game on Tuesday night, saying, “They can beat anybody,” it was Coach Bruce Pearl’s speech before the marquee matchup against Duke that blew people away.
In a video posted by ESPN, Pearl can be seen pumping his players up in the locker room pregame.
Speaking of Duke, Pearl said, “OK, there aren’t many teams in the country that are better than this team right here.”
He continued, “If we win this basketball game, we’ll make history, we’ll send a message. We’ll be representing the name on the front of our jersey, we’ll be writing the names on the back of the jersey.”
“You’re not going to get this kind of opportunity very often in your life – let’s take full advantage of this opportunity!” Pearl concluded, before rallying the team together.
Watch:
Bruce Pearl’s hype level is through the roof for Duke ? pic.twitter.com/JX3B0iFQur
— ESPN (@espn) November 21, 2018
While their effort fell short by a tight score of 78-72, Auburn’s performance cemented their status as an elite program, according to Duke’s legendary “Coach K.”
“[T]his [Auburn] team would be an outstanding team in any league. And a lot of these kids won the SEC regular season last year, and I can see why. And Bruce does a hell of a job of getting them to play so hard,” Krzyzewski said postgame.
“They can beat anybody. They’re primed to play us and our guys,” he added, acknowledging Auburn was ready to compete with the best the nation has to offer.
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
