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The Auburn Tigers made the NCAA Tournament field, yet many still consider them a snub in the selection process. Bruce Pearl’s squad landed on the four-line despite the metrics showing they deserved a much stronger seeding.
Included in those metrics? Top five rankings in both KenPom and NET.
NET: 5th✅
Kenpom: 4th✅
SEC Tournament Champion✅
T-2nd in SEC regular season✅4 seed for @AuburnMBB 🥴
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) March 17, 2024
Auburn went 26-7 in a competitive SEC that saw eight league members join the Big Dance field. During the regular season, they finished 13-5, tied with four other teams for the No. 2 spot. That mark was just one game behind league champ Tennessee.
The Tigers then rolled in the SEC Tournament, beating South Carolina, Florida, and Mississippi State in the process – each of whom are NCAA Tournament teams.
The lone case against Aubie was a 3-7 record against Quad 1 opponents, though they more than made up for it with a spotless 10-0 mark vs. Quad 2. In fact, the Tigers didn’t lose a game outside the Q1 meaning there were no bad losses on the schedule.
Meanwhile, Alabama – who was 4-10 vs. Q1 and 1-1 against the Tigers – also landed a No. 4 seed. They were unseated in their SEC Tournament opener by Florida and ended the season losing four of their final six games.
Kentucky got a three-seed with the same conference record and the No. 18 NET ranking.
Auburn is the latest team whose seeding didn’t match their NET ranking.
Luckily for the Tigers, a number of those other teams were left out.
Rick Pitino and Kim English were two Big East coaches to blast the criteria, believing coaches can effectively skew the ratings with weak non-conference scheduling.
Clemson coach Brad Brownell has been on record saying the same. His Tigers landed on the six-line and will face a New Mexico team that was in danger of being left out before winning the Mountain West tournament.
As for Auburn, they’ll face 13-seed Yale in the first round. We’ll see if they can keep the momentum going this March.