‘It’s win or go home’ for Auburn

For college athletes, the end is always coming, the time when they have to step out of the dream they had to play their sport in college and into the real world. For basketball players, the end can come suddenly.

Though advancing deep into the NCAA Tournament will be celebrated, anything other than winning it is painful. The further a team goes, the more it hurts players when they lose.

The next time Auburn loses, if it loses, will be the end of college basketball for most of the players on the team that won the SEC championship. And that is on their minds as they go into today’s NCAA Tournament game against Alabama State.

Auburn consensus All-American Johni Broome put it like this:

“It’s win or go home. If you’re not willing to step up and play your best basketball now, then why are you playing.”