Bruce Pearl on expectations on Auburn in NCAA Tournament: 'I'm more of a 12-seed guy'

Bruce Pearl has now taken two-thirds of his teams to March Madness over his 21 years as a head coach. However, for the first time in his career, he not only has a No. 1 seed but has the No. 1 overall seed out of the South Region for the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

While reacting to the selection for Auburn on Sunday, Pearl gave a lot of the credit for it to the schedule they played this season. Some of it just worked out as far as who they played but they also paired those with a non-conference that, overall, made up a slate that included all of the other No. 1 seeds and two apiece of the No. 2 seeds, No. 3 seeds, and No. 4 seeds along with 10 other teams that made the field.

“Yeah, well, give Mike Burgomaster credit for setting up such an ambitious schedule. How he figured out that, you know, Houston and Duke – well, we can’t really give any credit for Duke. That was the ACC-SEC matchup. And, of course, can’t give credit for Florida because they’re in my league, our league,” said Pearl.

“I mean, it allows us to be able to say that our goal is to win the national championship. It allows us to say that, if we don’t win the national championship, we’ll be disappointed as a No. 1 seed,” Pearl said. “We recognize that, um – it’s been a long time since we played Houston and Duke. Which, teams have gotten better. We’ll find out. And then, of course, we recognize that, you know – and I’ve been saying this a while. Florida, right now, to me, looks like they’re playing the best basketball of anybody in the country.”

Again, Auburn just happened to play in a record-setting league in the SEC that included 14 teams that made the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers were the top team in that league with a 16-4 overall record against those in the Southeastern Conference. They also just happened to have Duke in the ACC-SEC Challenge as well as Iowa State, North Carolina, and Memphis as part of the Maui Invitational. What they did schedule, though, was also Houston and Purdue.

All that helped Auburn post a resumé with a total record of 28-5. That included their mark of 16-5 in Quad 1, with an undefeated mark against the other three quadrants, per the latest in the NET Rankings.

Because of that, the Tigers have Pearl thinking bigger than he ever has as far as the postseason. He has been a high seed several times, specifically on The Plains, and has been as high as No. 2 seed four times overall. Still, with his first berth as a No. 1, Pearl wants to go all the way in San Antonio.

“Listen, we’re going to take it one game at a time. But, obviously, you know, these are, these would be the highest goals, I think, I’ve ever had heading into the NCAA Tournament because I’ve never been – I’m more of a 12-seed guy in my whole career than I am a 1-seed.”