A season that looked easy for months for Auburn basketball has suddenly turned sour over the last two weeks. After losing its final two regular season games against Texas A&M and Alabama, the top-seeded Tigers were toppled by No. 4-seed Tennessee 70-65 in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament on Saturday.
After entering the month of March as a presumed lock to be the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, that position is now in jeopardy. Auburn will still be on the one-line, but whether it will get the coveted south region is still up in the air after losing three of its last four games.
Despite the slump, head coach Bruce Pearl is not panicking at all heading into the Big Dance that starts un under a week’s time, according to Justin Ferguson of The Auburn Observer.
“We lost to Alabama, Tennessee and at Texas A&M. Yeah, we’re panicked,” Pearl said sarcastically, per Ferguson. “That’s a real softball. We lost to some great teams… Let’s get to Sunday, find out who we’re playing, and let’s get back to work.”
Despite the recent losses, Auburn doesn’t have a ton of reasons to be worried coming out of this game. The Tigers lost to Texas A&M in a raucous road environment before losing to a pair of potential No. 1 seeds in Alabama and Tennessee. In between those losses, Pearl and company knocked off an NCAA Tournament team in Ole Miss in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament on Friday.
Even though the schedule may have presented Auburn with a bit of an anomaly, it will still have to make some history in order to reach its ultimate goal this season. No team has ever lost three of its last four games heading into March Madness and gone on to win the national championship, according to ESPN’s Jay Williams.
This Auburn basketball team should still find itself in a solid spot in the bracket on Sunday, but it will have to build some momentum during the first weekend and get some confidence back. Regardless, Pearl and company have proven time and time again that they can compete with anybody when at their best.
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