Hibachi might be the secret to Auburn’s unlikely March Madness run to the Elite Eight
The Auburn Tigers are going to a hibachi restaurant for dinner Saturday, so they’re going to upset the No. 2-seed Kentucky Wildcats on Sunday.
At least that’s what superstition has led No. 5-seed Auburn to this season.
When possible, the Tigers like to go on team dinners to hibachi restaurants on the eve of games. They say they haven’t lost this season when they follow through.
“We are undefeated eating at a Japanese steakhouse out the night before the game,” coach Bruce Pearl said at his pregame press conference Saturday at the Sprint Center. “Tonight we’ll be eating some place in Kansas City.”
Specifically, Auburn plans to dine at Dan Den on the eve of the all-Southeastern Conference Elite Eight matchup in Missouri. When the Tigers are home in Alabama, they typically dine at Mikata in Auburn.
The Tigers went to Dan Den for their pregame meal Thursday. On Friday, Auburn shocked the No. 1-seed North Carolina Tar Heels with a 97-80 rout.
Auburn has lost to Kentucky twice this season, once on the road in Lexington and once at home.
Ahead of the game at Rupp Arena, the Tigers just ate in their hotel, Pearl said. Ahead of its home loss, Auburn also didn’t eat hibachi. It was one of two home games preceded by a dinner somewhere other than Mikata. The Tigers lost both games.
The tradition actually began last season, when Auburn began eating at Mikata before every home game. The Tigers only went somewhere else once and they lost to the Texas A&M Aggies the next day for their only loss at Auburn Arena all year.
“We just realized that every time we got to Mikata before a home game we always win,” star center Austin Wiley told the Montgomery Advertiser. “Then when we didn’t go, we just happened to lose those games, so we just kept it going.”
Is this just bizarre coincidence or is there actually some method to the Tigers’ apparent madness?
Forward Horace Spencer has one theory.
“We like to eat that kind of food because we see the food cooked in front of us,” Spencer said. “Everybody is sitting around watching it, talking to each other, just being able to associate, being able to just be together and talk, show each other love and whatnot. It’s just something that we like to do.”
Pearl, however, thinks there’s another reason, he just hopes he’s not be committing another NCAA infraction.
“Our guys love the show as much as they love the dinner,” Pearl said. “It’s double everything. Double rice, double meat, double this, double, double because they want to eat it and they want to take it home, right. I’m not sure that’s an extra benefit or not, but maybe it is.”