Exclusive: What Amir "Aura" Khan thinks of Vanderbilt Basketball – Sports Illustrated

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OKLAHOMA CITY—McNeese’s locker room opens to the media with as close to a swarm as a midmajor will get until an upset is pulled over the weekend, and none of the swarm walks over to its group of players donned in grey sweatsuits. 
Instead, everyone drifts over towards Amir “Aura” Khan, a viral sensation that took over the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament a season ago and became the rallying cry for Will Wade’s 2024-25 McNeese team–which pulled a first-round upset. Khan didn’t have a boombox in hand throughout Wednesday morning’s open locker room session like he did when he went viral, instead he was affable and open to conversation with anyone who wanted a piece of his time. 
Khan is the most well known man within McNeese’s program–and may be the most well known person in all of midmajor basketball–but he won’t be on the floor on Thursday as Vanderbilt looks to pick up a Round of 64 win. Khan has been around this McNeese program as it’s prepared for Vanderbilt and knows what it’s going to take for it to pull an upset, though. 
He also knows it will be a tall task. 
“I don’t think they should’ve been a five seed,” Khan told Vandy on SI. “They probably should have been a little bit higher. So we definitely know we got an underseeded five team, five seed, but they're a great team. They showed it in the SEC Tournament against Florida, and then it was a close game in the final. 
They're a great team, and that's exactly where we're expecting to play.” 
McNeese was the final 12 seed announced in the bracket release on Selection Sunday and while its players knew it was getting in the dance as a result of an automatic bid, it didn’t know who it was getting. Khan says McNeese knew it would be Nebraska or Vanderbilt when the team came across the screen. 
This McNeese program–which is surging under first-year head coach Bill Armstrong–is in the midst of a 10-game winning streak. That mark represents the country’s fourth-longest active winning streak. Khan appears to have a significant level of belief in his team as long as it can turn over Vanderbilt and hold its own on the glass. He knows that McNeese will have to be sharp on Thursday afternoon. 
“When we figured out it was that Vandy would be the five seed, it was kind of like ‘okay, it's definitely a tough team to play,’” Khan said,  “But we're in March, so you know you’re getting a good team to play anyway. So we're ready to play, and it should be a great game.”
McNeese will challenge Vanderbilt in that it’s No. 1 in the country in opponent turnover percentage, it has what Vanderbilt forward AK Okereke called a group of talented defensive players. Vanderbilt, though has two dynamic backcourt players in Tyler Tanner and Duke Miles that Khan is keyed in on. 
If McNeese can force a number of turnovers on Thursday, it’s got a chance. The good news for Khan and company, it’s done that all season. 
“We want to go get it, we're gonna go get the ball,” Khan said. “We're gonna go score in transition. And I think that attack mindset is just what makes us so dangerous.”
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Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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