Bruce Pearl makes emphatic case for Auburn to be No. 1 overall seed in NCAA Tournament

On Saturday, 1-seed Auburn suffered an upset at the hands of 4-seed Tennessee in the SEC Tournament semifinals. Auburn also lost its two final regular season games and has lost three of its last four outings, in total.

Auburn’s sudden struggles at the end of the season have caused some fans to question whether the Tigers still deserve to be the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. After the Tigers’ loss on Saturday, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl defended his team’s résumé.

“Our guys are great competitors. I’m very, very proud of them. I believe that this team has from start to finish done enough to be the No. 1 overall seed in this tournament,” Pearl said.

“Our résumé is historically one of the strongest résumés in the history of college basketball with the number of Quad 1 wins we’ve had. Certainly losing to Tennessee as a team ranked fifth or sixth in the country is not necessarily — shouldn’t knock us off that spot.”

Despite Auburn’s recent sputters, it still boasts the most Quad 1 wins in the nation this season with 16. Houston and Michigan State trail closely behind with 14 and 13 Quad 1 wins, respectively.

However, both of the latter programs suffered losses in Quad 2 matchups this season, while Auburn’s only losses were against Quad 1 opponents. For the most part, Auburn was a stronghold in a whirlwind of wins and losses in the SEC.

The Tigers began conference play on a nine-game win streak, even with star center Johni Broome injured for part of the run. Then, after finally suffering a loss, the Tigers rattled off another six consecutive wins before losing again.

It was a jaw-dropping feat in a historically competitive SEC. Bruce Pearl believes the NCAA Tournament selection committee would be short-sighted to focus on Auburn’s recent losses instead of the team’s complete body of work.

“They talk about the body of work as much as anything, the wins we had all season long, the strength of the league. We lost to a team that’s fighting for a 1 seed,” Pearl said. “… In other words, to me, this is one of the things I’ve talked to the team about, if you’re the No. 1 overall seed, then basically you had the best regular season from November all the way to March. We’d love to be able to hold onto that. We’ll find out Sunday.”