Bruce Pearl explains why he prefers Auburn being a lower seed in the NCAA Tournament

The Auburn Tigers enter the NCAA Tournament as a two seed in the Midwest Region, matching up against 15th-seeded Jacksonville State in the opening round on Friday. Despite Auburn being one of the highest ranked teams throughout the season, Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl is trying to maintain the underdog mindset in the NCAA Tournament.

Pearl said that he prefers Auburn being a lower seed in the NCAA Tournament, and he understands that Jacksonville State will have a chip on its shoulder on Friday. While Pearl knows that Auburn deserves to be a two seed in the NCAA Tournament, he believes that his Tigers team is remaining hungry and humble.

“Listen, all I want to be is a 12 seed, okay? I’m a 12 seed. That’s who I am,” Pearl said. “That’s who I’ve always been. And that’s who my teams have been. That’s what Auburn basketball still is. I know we’re a 2 seed, and I hope we take advantage of the hard work that we’ve done to be a 2 seed, but we’re hungry, and we’re humble. We’ve got the underdog thing on as well.

“I understand Jacksonville State. I respect them. They have step up-ability, and because they’re such a dangerous three-point shooting team, and they can make them contested, and they absolutely can get hot. But it’s not going to be because they want it any more than we do or anything like that.”

Auburn wants to keep underdog mentality for NCAA Tournament

Auburn won the regular season SEC Championship. The Tigers went 27-5 overall and 15-3 against SEC opponents this season. But Auburn was far from the only good team in the SEC. Tennessee, Kentucky, and Arkansas each won at least 13 SEC games, while five other teams won nine conference games.

There aren’t many easy opponents on Auburn’s schedule in the SEC, and Pearl believes that the Tigers will be able to carry over their mindset into the NCAA Tournament.

“So that’s who we’ve been in our league,” said Pearl. “Look, we’re in the SEC. We’re Auburn in the SEC in men’s basketball. And we’re regular season champions, and we’re going to try to represent our conference and our university, and Jacksonville State’s in the way. So we both have got great motivation.”

Tip-off for Auburn vs. Jacksonville State is at 12:40 p.m. ET on Friday. While Jacksonville State is viewed as the underdog, Pearl knows that his team is in for a tough fight.