This is March! The NCAA Tournament bracket has finally been revealed, and the Auburn Tigers were named the No. 1 overall seed and assigned to the South region. The other No. 1 seeds include Duke, Houston, and Florida.
The Tigers will face off against either Alabama State or St. Francis in Lexington, Kentucky, on Thursday at 1:50 p.m. central time in their first game of the tournament.
Although his team struggled a little at the end of the season, head coach Bruce Pearl was emphatic that the Tigers are not in a panic, and that his team is ready to lock in and continue to make history.
"We lost to some great teams, we lost at the buzzer against Alabama, we had possessions here (against Tennessee in the SEC Tournament)," Pearl said Saturday, per Auburn Undercover, before continuing sarcastically: "Yeah, we're panicked. I can hardly wait till next weekend to start playing again. Let's get to Sunday, find out where we're going, find out who we're playing and let's get back to work. I'm looking forward, not back."
Still, Pearl sees improvements that his team can make heading into Thursday's matchup.
"We probably offensively need to think about sharing it a little bit more," Pearl said after Auburn's loss to Tennessee on Saturday, per Auburn Undercover. "We run through Johni pretty consistently. May step back and see if we can spread out our scoring a little bit, then that might make us even more dangerous and an even better team."
If the Tigers win their first game, they will play the winner of No. 8 Louisville vs. No. 9 Creighton. A second win gets Auburn basketball to Atlanta for the next round.
For the last three seasons, the Tigers have been eliminated from the tournament in the first weekend, but all signs are pointing to a successful tournament run for the team this year.