Auburn basketball's home-court SEC championship party is first celebration of magic season

AUBURN — Zep Jasper sat in the practice gym the night before Auburn basketball's final home game and said that when he arrived from College of Charleston, he "knew I had a chance to win a national championship at Auburn."

The first step was winning an SEC title. The Tigers loaded up on transfers, including Jasper, and built a new team after finishing below .500. They were picked to finish fifth in the league.

They're alone at the top of the SEC now.

Alone atop the ladders in Neville Arena. No other gym in the league earned a party like Auburn's on Saturday.

The Tigers' exclamation point on of the best regular seasons in program history was an 82-71 win against South Carolina to clinch the title outright. They enter a postseason that will force them out of their comfort zone — home court, where they won all 16 games — but for now, Auburn (27-4, 15-3 SEC) can rejoice at what a special season it was on The Plains.

The players, coaches and witnesses celebrated on a court of orange and blue confetti after it was over Saturday. As sixth man Wendell Green Jr. slid between photo ops, he was asked how many pictures he'd been in.

"A thousand? At least a thousand."

They've all adapted swimmingly, if unwillingly, to their roles as local celebrities the last four months. Auburn basketball became the talk of campus. Students pitched tents more than 24 hours before the Kentucky game, desperate to not lose a spot in the arena. Jabari Smith skyrocketed in mock drafts and built a case to be No. 1. Walker Kessler swatted shots and posed in bucket hats. Eighth-year coach Bruce Pearl received an eight-year contract extension that made him likely a top-five paid coach in the sport, and even more shockingly, higher paid than the football coach.

Even for a program that reached the Final Four three years ago, this rise has felt meteoric. Auburn earned its first-ever No. 1 ranking.

"That’s why I came here, was to win," said Smith, who was the highest-rated commit in Auburn basketball history. "I'm not surprised at all that we won it. It feels good. I just want to keep going.”

Junior wing Allen Flanigan scored the game's first points on a 3-pointer. He recovered from an Achilles injury in nonconference play and has had to adjust to a new role that has involved frustration on offense. On a loaded roster, he's far from the team's leading scorer like he was last season. But he is a champion. At center court, he shared a hug with his dad, assistant coach Wes Flanigan.

While teammates cut down the nets, sophomore guard K.D. Johnson was shirtless off to the side, with phones actively making calls in both hands. Eventually he returned to the tunnel beneath the arena to chat with his grandfather, who had never seen Johnson play before Saturday. Johnson scored 17 points, including a pair of 3-pointers after halftime that prompted him to yell gleefully at his hands.

“I was just happy that I finally made a shot, you know?" he said. "I’d missed two or three before that in the first half. I had a couple easy ones that rolled out, so for me to see myself hit a shot, that kind of got me going."

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Pearl was the last to cut down his piece of net. He tossed it like a post-wedding flower bouquet into the crowd below. The lucky recipient was backup center Dylan Cardwell, still covered in confetti from his snow angel.

Cardwell symbolizes the team's freewheeling energy and style — always unflinchingly prepared to throw down a dunk and let you know about it when the opportunity presents itself.

"It's all about our players: To be 15-3 in this league says they came to play every night," Pearl said. "That is virtually impossible to do when you're dealing with 18- and 19-year-old kids. Our guys came to play every single night."

They get six days off before the next game, an SEC quarterfinal in Tampa. Nationally, how the Tigers' season is remembered will transpire there and wherever the NCAA Tournament takes them. But locally, this team will be remembered for never letting down a home crowd.

As Jasper took photos, he made a promise to those fans that sounded similar to what he mentioned in the practice gym the previous night: "We ain't done yet."

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn basketball wins SEC championship: Scenes from Neville Arena