Steven Pearl staunchly defends Auburn basketball’s shaky NCAA Tournament resume

On Saturday evening, the Auburn basketball program closed out its 2025 regular season with an ugly loss against the rival Alabama Crimson Tide on the road. This game was largely uncompetitive from the jump, as Auburn fell behind by 19 points at halftime and was never able to make things particularly interesting after the break.

Auburn finished the season with a record of 16-15, and is unranked, with many assuming that that will be enough to keep them out of the NCAA Tournament, which is set to take place later this month.

However, after the loss against Alabama, Auburn head coach Steven Pearl defended his team’s resume.

“We have the best win in college basketball at Florida. If you look at our quality wins and other teams on the bubble, I don’t think those teams get those wins… I think our resume stands up against anybody’s,” said Pearl, via The Field of 68 on X, formerly Twitter.

Indeed, Auburn’s win over Florida on the road this season did raise eyebrows, but it’s generally not advisable for a team to have to lean on one victory alone as its reasoning for getting into the NCAA Tournament.

Steven Pearl, meanwhile, has just finished up his first season at the helm in the plains after his father, Bruce Pearl, retired after the Tigers’ exit from the Final Four a season ago.

While Auburn was expected to take a step back this year considering the amount of talent that walked out the door this past offseason, it was still a very disappointing campaign for the Tigers, and at this point, it doesn’t seem likely that Pearl’s NCAA Tournament wish will come to fruition.

In any case, Auburn will have one last chance to make a good impression on the committee when the SEC Tournament gets underway later this week.

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