Right up until the very end of the regular season, the Auburn Tigers were in the mix for the SEC title. Despite a three-game win streak to close out the year, Bruce Pearl’s team fell short and had to settle for the No. 4 seed in the SEC Tournament with a 24-7 (13-5) record. That means Auburn won’t be in action at the conference tourney in Nashville until Friday for a matchup with either No. 5 seed South Carolina or No. 10 seed Ole Miss.
Pearl won’t need to win the conference's automatic bid to get into the NCAA Tournament, but his team will be hunting down Auburn’s first SEC Tournament title since 2019. The season, Pearl rode Bryce Brown, Jared Harper, and Chuma Okeke, not just to the conference championship, but all the way to the Final Four.
This season, Auburn has one of the deepest lineups in the country which is anchored by Johni Broome. In the regular season, Broome averaged 16.3 points 8.5 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks on 3rd best defensive team in the SEC. The Tigers allowed just 68.5 points a game and ranked 17th in defensive efficiency. However, there are quite a few players in the league who have been a thorn in their side.
This could be Pearl’s chance to go on a run, but the problem is, his success in the SEC Tournament has been scattered. Over his previous nine years at Auburn, Pearl has been one-and-done in the conference tourney, all but two years. Yet, somehow, he’s managed to scrape to a winning record over that span.
Bruce Pearl’s SEC Tournament record
- 7-6
Year-by-year
- 2015: 3-1 (Lost in championship game)
- 2016: 0-1
- 2017: 0-1
- 2018: 0-1 (SEC regular season champ)
- 2019: 4-0 (Won SEC Tournament title)
- 2020: Canceled (Covid)
- 2021: Self-imposed one-year ban
- 2022: 0-1
- 2023: 0-1
Between a pandemic cancellation and a self-imposed ban for an assistant coach’s connection to a corruption scandal, and two disappointments, it’s been four years since Auburn won a single game in the SEC Tournament.