Paul Finebaum explains how worried he is about Auburn entering NCAA Tournament

Paul Finebaum watched as Auburn started the 2024-25 campaign on fire, winning 27 of their first 29 games. However, Bruce Pearl’s Tigers have since lost three of their last four, including splitting their two games at the SEC Tournament last week.

That has many worried about how far Auburn can go in the NCAA Tournament, even if they ended up being a top seed when Selection Sunday rolled around. Finebaum eased some of those concerns as fans begin to fill out their brackets, claiming he’s not worried about the little skid the Tigers had over the past week and change.

“I’m not as concerned,” Finebaum said regarding Auburn, via McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning. “I talked to Bruce Pearl on Monday of last week. I came away thinking this guy just wants to win one game and get out of Nashville. I think he did that. The way Saturday went had to bother him, but I don’t think he’s that worried. He’s such an emotional coach, though. If suddenly they can’t start clicking like they had been — I think that is legitimate worry.

“Now, I don’t claim to be anything other than a talk-show host, but the experts today seem to think they have a really good regional, and I think you’ll get a lot of — I mean it’s not hard to pick Auburn to get to the Final Four. Now, I know Florida is probably a more popular in Vegas, but Auburn looks like they, for whatever reason, and maybe because they are No. 1 — they’ve got a very manageable path.”

All told, it’s easy to see why Finebaum has a lot of love for Auburn entering the NCAA Tournament. They’re the tournament’s top overall seed, and they have the body of work to show for that designation. Even his ESPN colleague Jay Bilas thinks the Tigers will get back to form when the lights are the brightest later this week.

“I think Auburn, even though they’ve lost three out of four, people are overreacting to that,” Bilas stated, via The Paul Finebaum Show on Monday. “Auburn lost the first of those three to Texas A&M in College Station two days after they wrapped up the regular season title at Rupp Arena.

“There was a probably a hangover, figuratively and a hangover, maybe even literally, when they played that game, and then they lose Alabama at home in overtime on a Mark Sears [buzzer beater in overtime]. Then, they lose in the SEC Tournament against Tennessee. Those are big time losses they suffered, so I’m not particularly concerned about that.”

Time will tell how high Auburn can climb. They still don’t know their opponent at this moment though, as they’ll play the winner of No. 16 seed St. Francis (PA) and No. 16 seed Alabama State in the First Four. Whoever emerges victorious will battle Auburn inside Rupp Arena in the first round on Thursday, and Paul Finebaum will have his eyes on that one.

— On3’s Barkley Truax contributed to this article.