Battle Tested: Auburn Prepared for Tournament

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Battle-tested: Historic schedule prepares Auburn for NCAA Tournament

2 hours ago

AUBURN, Alabama — The Tigers’ road to this year’s NCAA Tournament was, by strength of schedule, one of the most difficult in college basketball.

Now they’re ready to cash in on so much experience against quality opposition — not only from their own conference, but across the country, as they prepare to open March Madness on Thursday against Iowa.

Thirteen opponents from Auburn’s schedule this season made the NCAA Tournament field, the most in program history. That includes the SEC’s eight bids, tied for the most of any conference this year, plus six nonconference teams that are going dancing.

Only Kansas, Texas and Baylor faced more NCAA Tournament foes over the course of the season. 

“Just being there, being able to already have seen and played against some of the competition and just knowing that they're the best — the top teams in their league — it gives us hope going into the tournament that we can stick around and win some games,” senior wing Allen Flanigan said. 

Auburn’s strength of schedule, per the NCAA’s NET system, finished No. 18 nationally. And a big reason why was a healthy nonconference slate, in which the Tigers ultimately went 3-3 against NCAA Tournament teams.

Bruce Pearl has often credited assistant coach Mike Burgomaster for tactfully devising nonconference schedules that balance the learning curve of the early season with challenging programs from across the country. This season might have been his best work yet, and it was a big boost to Auburn’s resume all season.

“We played six non-conference teams that were in the field,” Pearl said. “That's the most that Auburn has ever played. So that's by choice. By beating Colgate and Texas Southern and Northwestern and playing Memphis and USC and West Virginia, we helped ourselves.”

Of course, the bulk of Auburn’s tournament experience stems from yet another rugged SEC schedule. The Tigers went 10-8 in league play, and that included a 4-8 mark in games against teams that made the tournament — meaning two-thirds of Auburn’s SEC schedule were March Madness-caliber matchups.

“The SEC has eight teams in March Madness, so give credit to the other SEC opponents,” Auburn center Johni Broomesaid. “Making it competitive — being a competitive conference allows you to have a little more experience in close games. Then we played teams like Northwestern who’s pretty good, Memphis is pretty good, teams like that. I just think it prepares us for the close games and the hard matchups. We’ve played physical teams, we’ve played athletic teams, we’ve played teams that could shoot it from 3. We’ve got a feel for everybody, so I feel like we’ve just got to put it together now.”

Some may have been surprised by a 9-seed for this team after losing nine of its last 13 games. But the NET ratings don’t take into account when opponents were played, just who was played, and how the games were played. 

Auburn had more than its fair share of heartbreak in narrow losses the season, but the fact that the results were down to the wire meant the team was rarely penalized by metrics and selection criteria. Plus, Auburn finished 17-2 outside of Quadrant 1 matchups. Only 25 other teams in college basketball have two or less such losses.

“While it’s kind of easy to criticize this team for losing as many games as we lost, one of the other things that was a big factor was we were 19-3 against teams we were favored against,” Pearl said. “And that means, you know, I can only ask the kids to do what they’re capable of doing, and then can they reach up and raise the bar a little bit? I think we demonstrated we could — not often enough to be able to compete for the regular-season championship. So we’re prepared.”

In a season of tough breaks — with scheduling and game results — Auburn finally caught a good one in March, only having to travel a couple hours to Birmingham for the opening weekend of the tournament. Tipoff against 8-seed Iowa is set for 5:50 p.m. CST on Thursday (TNT).

“I think the guys will be fresh and excited about playing now,” Pearl said. “I think there will be some new wind in their sails.”

Auburn vs. 2023 NCAA Tournament teams

* 1-seed Alabama (0-2)

* 4-seed Tennessee (1-1)

* 6-seed Kentucky (0-1)

* 7-seed Texas A&M (0-2)

* 7-seed Missouri (1-0)

* 7-seed Northwestern (1-0)

* 8-seed Memphis (0-1)

* 8-seed Arkansas (1-1)

* 9-seed West Virginia (0-1)

* 10-seed USC (0-1)

* 11-seed Mississippi State (1-0)

* 15-seed Colgate (1-0)

* 16-seed Texas Southern (1-0)

[Mikey 16,779]

"Battle Tested". That's one of the more disappointing things about this season. We have a very, very old and veteran team. We should have received the benefit from that that frequently comes to some veteran mid-major teams, regardless of overall talent level. We didn't get it.