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Bruce Pearl says Auburn feels like ‘regular-season national champion’ with No. 1 overall seed
By Mark Kern
Published:
Bruce Pearl and the Auburn Tigers had a spectacular 2024-2025 regular season, as they won the regular season SEC Championship in a year that the SEC has arguably never been better with 14 teams making the NCAA Tournament.
While they lost to Tennessee in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament, that didn’t prevent the selection committee from giving the Tigers the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.
While talking about what it means for the program to earn the No. 1 overall seed, Pearl said it was a great honor.
“We’re very pleased to be recognized as this year’s overall No. 1 seed,” Pearl told reporters after finding out their seed. “For me, for us, we sort of feel like that makes us the regular season national champion.”
The Tigers have lost 3 of their last 4 games entering the NCAA Tournament, but those losses are to Texas A&M, Alabama and Tennessee. All 3 of those teams are at least a 4 seed, with Alabama and Tennessee being a No. 2 seed.
If there is one negative for Auburn, there is a potential second round matchup against Louisville, with the game being in Lexington. For now, the Tigers will be watching Tuesday night as St. Francis (Pa.) and Norfolk State will square off in a First Four matchup with the winner taking on Auburn.
