Miami saves America from the horror of a shirtless Charles Barkley with upset of Auburn
The Miami Hurricanes’ 79-61 win against the Auburn Tigers on Sunday was also a win for America — or at least Americans who had no desire to see Charles Barkley shirtless.
Barkley, whose nickname was “The Round Mound of Rebound” during his playing days, promised he would take off his shirt if his alma mater beat Miami in the second round of the NCAA Tournament and Jim Larranaga said he was just trying to do the nation a favor by knocking off the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region.
Before he said anything about the actual game, Larranaga started off his postgame press conference by taking a jab at Barkley, who’s now an analyst for TNT.
“I was tuned into the games before us and I listened to Charles Barkley tell the CBS crew that if Auburn won, he would take off his shirt,” the coach said, “and I thought to myself, Man, no one wants to see that, Chuck, so we did everything possible to make it possible that he wouldn’t have to do that.”
When CBS Sports played the clip during halftime of one of the later games, the camera quickly cut back to Barkley, who was smiling and left speechless by Larranaga’s lighthearted dig.
Barkley then complimented the No. 10-seed Hurricanes and mentioned he received a text message from Miami football legend Warren Sapp. He also gave a shout out to actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who played football for the Hurricanes, too.
Miami’s upset in Greenville, South Carolina, came near the end of a wild first weekend of the NCAA Tourney. Now the Hurricanes are headed to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2016 and will face the No. 11-seed Iowa State Cyclones on Friday in Chicago. Miami is now an unlikely favorite to reach the Elite Eight for the first time in program history.
This story was originally published March 21, 2022 at 10:36 AM.
