Things I'm thinking about as Auburn prepares for its fourth NCAA Tournament under Bruce Pearl

There's 363 teams ranked in the NET and available to make the NCAA Tournament, and just 68 of them make the Big Dance. I think it's important, especially for Auburn and its basketball culture, to never take making the tournament for granted. The goal is to get in, and once you're in, it's survive and advance. That's it. All the style points and everything else goes out the window. It's about matchups and momentum. Auburn has won at least one game in the NCAA Tournament in 10 of its 11 all-time appearances. That's a really interesting stat considering the Tigers' overall basketball history. They haven't made the tournament many times, but when they have made it, they normally make at least some noise. This particular Auburn team might be the most impossible to predict of all previous teams in school history in terms of what they can accomplish in the tournament. Nobody would be surprised at one and done. And while some might be surprised if they won two, it wouldn't be that far fetched an idea at all. Here's what I'm thinking about as this team prepares for 7-seed Northwestern in the first round: