Listless Auburn Prepares for USD : Coach Tries to Inspire Tigers for NCAA Tournament

Sonny Smith, Auburn basketball coach, doesn’t speak too highly of his team, which takes a 17-12 record into Thursday’s game against the University of San Diego in the first round of the NCAA tournament’s Midwest Regional at Indianapolis.

“We have to jump start our team,” Smith said in a half-serious vein Monday from Auburn. “We’ve been referred to as uninspired, unmotivated and uncoached. We can’t even get up for ‘Miami Vice.’ ”

Smith, who ranks with Abe Lemons and Jim Valvano among college basketball’s most entertaining coaches, took a backhand swipe at USD, too.

“Our biggest problem is selling our players on how good this San Diego team is,” he said.

That seemed to be a reasonable line, but he followed by comparing USD to the Richmond Spiders, who have never been confused with the NCAA’s basketball elite.

“We were faced with a similar situation three years ago when we played Richmond in the first round of the East Regional,” Smith said. “We had to win in order to play Indiana in the next game, the same as this year. Our kids overlooked Richmond, who had a big center, some fine shooters and two guards quick as a hiccup.”

Auburn lost to Richmond, 72-71, in what was the Spiders’ first NCAA tournament appearance. Coincidentally, USD made its first--and only--NCAA showing that same year, 1984, losing to Princeton, 65-56.

As Smith said, the winner of Thursday’s game advances to a Saturday pairing against Indiana, assuming the Hoosiers survive an opening-round game against Fairfield.

Auburn’s biggest problem, aside from its seeming lack of motivation, may be ignorance of USD, Smith said.

“We have a most difficult assignment (in preparation) because not too much is written here in the South about San Diego,” he said. “Some people are going to say they can’t play, but I have to try to convince (his team) that San Diego could go to the final 16 or eight. They won 14 games in a row, led the nation in defense (lowest field-goal percentage allowed) and on top of it all, they are bigger than us.”

Smith then displayed a bit of ignorance about USD, saying the Toreros were in the NCAA tournament last year, which was off by two years.

His own team was in the tournament last year, advancing to the West Regional final before losing to eventual national champion Louisville, 84-76.

Auburn, 22-11 a year ago, were expected to be an improved team this season. The Tigers looked improved in December when they opened 7-0 against a soft schedule and rose to fifth in the wire service polls.

However, they had a losing record the rest of the season, in part because of a demanding schedule and also because there was no superstar available to replace forward Chuck Person, who left school after last season and joined the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Assn.

“We are surprised and tremendously elated to be in the NCAA tournament,” Smith said, turning serious for a moment. “We never knew we were in as strong a position with the NCAA as we were (No. 8 seeding in the Midwest). We are happy they realized the difficulties and competitive nature of the Southeastern Conference, where we all beat each other to death in league play.”

Auburn isn’t usually lumped in with the North Carolinas and Indianas of the college basketball world, but Smith seems convinced his team is part of the establishment now, because it is making a fourth straight NCAA tournament appearance.

“Heck, we couldn’t even sneak up on the Boston Celtics,” he said. “When we were ranked No. 5 in the nation early this year, everybody thought that was a carry-over from football, but that was us.”

The highlight of Auburn’s regular season, according to the coach, was that it ended Sunday.

The Tigers beat every team in the SEC at least once.

They also played nine games against teams appearing in the NCAA tournament (including SEC members Kentucky, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Louisiana State), splitting a total of 14 games involving those teams.

Injuries to guard Gerald White, the school career assist leader, contributed to the team’s inconsistency.

Auburn’s strength, Smith said, is rebounding, despite a front line that includes three players only 6-feet 7-inches. The top rebounder is 240-pound center Jeff Moore, who reminds some Auburn fans of ex-Tiger and current Philadelphia 76er star Charles Barkley.

“We are relatively small, but we get our rebounds because our offense is designed to get the rebound,” Smith said. “There is an emphasis on rebounding in all we do. We don’t teach it better than other coaches, but every club I’ve ever had has been first, second or third in the league in rebounding.”

Because USD has four players with field goal averages higher than 50%, there may not be a lot of rebounds in Thursday’s game, Smith said.

Auburn’s defense may be a liability.

“We have a gimmick defense where we pick out somebody we don’t guard in every game,” Smith said. “Of course, there are some games we seem to pick out all five and don’t guard ‘em. But there’s nobody on San Diego that you can semi let go. That could create some problems.”

Smith declined to predict how his team would do against USD.

“Our emotions are high at times, but not at others,” he said. “This team could overlook their own birthday. Some writer who failed third grade said it is up to coaches to motivate players, and it is, but . . . you can motivate all you want, but if you can’t make the ball go in the hole, you can’t win.”

Smith seems to think his coaching rival, Hank Egan of USD, has a psychological advantage.

“I would say Hank sees this as a perfect setup,” Smith said. “He’s going against a team that might overlook his club, not knowing much about ‘em. And he’s got a chance to gain some recognition and then play Indiana on national television.”

Setup? It sounded as if Smith was trying to get his own team to buy that as a way of motivating it. After all, he hasn’t forgotten what happened against the Richmond Spiders three years ago.