Auburn basketball is so good, CBS Sports' Gary Parrish believes the Tigers could 0-3 in their next three games -- against Texas A&M on Tuesday, in the IBOB against Alabama at the Neville Arena on Saturday, and in the SEC Tournament -- and still get a No. 1 March Madness seed.
"There are a bunch of different ways to illustrate how great of a season Auburn is having. At this point, perhaps the best is to suggest that the Tigers are so far ahead of everybody else from a resume-perspective with eight days left in the regular season that they could literally lose every game they play between now and Selection Sunday and still be the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament," Parrish wrote.
"That's how great of a season Auburn is having.
"The Tigers continued their incredible run through nearly everything and anything placed in front of them with a 94-78 win at Kentucky on Saturday that pushed them to 27-2 overall and 15-1 in the SEC. More importantly, Auburn is now 16-2 in Quadrant 1 with no additional losses."
Legitimately, the most asinine part of Parrish's remarks is thinking the Tigers could lose three games in a row after losing two all season. Those two losses were to No. 2 Duke and No. 5 Florida.
Bruce Pearl has said he won't do anything different down the stretch of the regular season; be it changing his lineups or sitting guys out to preserve them for tournament play.
Ipso facto, don't expect those three losses.
Do expect that No. 1 seed, though. If Duke and Houston lose one more game, AU probably clinches the No. 1 overall seed by beating Texas A&M and Alabama.