Auburn's NCAA tournament dreams unlikely after brutal loss to Tennessee in the SEC tournament

Auburn's NCAA tournament dreams unlikely after brutal loss to Tennessee in the SEC tournament

March 12, 2026 – NASHVILLE, Ten. – Auburn was clearly the better team on the court on Thursday in the SEC tournament against Tennessee – and then suddenly they weren't.

Auburn was dominating the game offensively and defensively with a ten-point lead with 10:26 left to play 51-41. Then they then went the next six minutes and 36 seconds without scoring a point. It wasn't just that they were missing shots – they were turning the ball over or attempting bad shots. Meanwhile Tennessee Freshman Nate Ament took over the game going on a ten-point run that ignited his teammates. By the time Auburn scored again a 10-point lead for Auburn had turned into a 10-point deficit.

Ament finished with 27 points, eight rebounds, four assists, and three blocks in 32 minutes played. 17 of his 27 points came in the second half.

Auburn's season finishes 17-16, meaning that they probably should be happy at this point to get an invitation to the NIT.

The 72–62 loss to No. 25 Tennessee exposed Auburn as a pretender, who will surprise almost no one if they were left out of the NCAA tournament.

Auburn was led by Tahaad Pettiford, who scored 28 points and hit 5-of-10 three pointers. He had 25 of those points before Tennessee went on their run. The Tennessee defense refused to let Pettiford beat them and nobody else on Auburn stepped up. Keyshawn Johnson managed ten points, but

First year coach Steven Pearl made a case for Auburn to get one of the final at-large bids from the NCAA tournament committee.

"If you look at our résumé, if you compare us to the rest of the teams on the bubble... we deserve to be in the tournament," Coach Pearl said. "It's my job to fight for my team. It's my job to be my team's advocate."

It is hard to argue that a team that finished with less than 20 wins is one of the best teams in the country and is worthy to be in the field of 68.

Pearl pointed out that Auburn had a number three in the country strength of schedule ranking and a current NET ranking of Number. 38. Auburn's resume includes a win at Florida and home wins against Arkansas, Kentucky, Texas and NC State with a neutral site win over St. John's.

The last four at-large teams in the tournament are Santa Clara at 22–10. They have few quality wins. Missouri at 20–12 – they have a poor NET rating but a better SEC record than Auburn. VCU at 23–9 – they have good efficiency number but in recent years the mid‑majors appear to be discriminated against by the committee. According to many prognosticators Oklahoma is the last at-large in the field with a pedestrian 18–14 record. Auburn had been ahead of Oklahoma, but Auburn failed to do what they needed to do against Tennessee while Oklahoma had a blowout win over Texas A&M that likely pushed them into the field ahead of Auburn. Any additional tournament wins for Oklahoma is likely bad news for the Tigers.

Auburn is in a group with: SMU at 20–12, but no top‑tier wins, New Mexico at 21–11 who struggled down the stretch in the Mountain West Conference, Seton Hall at 19–13 whose Big East win over Creighton kept them alive, and Indiana at 17–15 but few quality wins.

If the Tigers somehow do get in the field they will likely be in one of the at-large play-in games.

The Tigers will find out their fate on selection Sunday

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