Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl gave his team the "underdog" treatment ahead of Sunday's Elite Eight game with Michigan State, even though the Tigers entered the NCAA Tournament as the top overall seed. However, the "underdog" mentality may bleed into this weekend's Final Four.
Ahead of this weekend's action in San Antonio, Texas, USA TODAY Sports writer Eddie Timanus revealed his "re-seed" of the remaining four teams in the NCAA Tournament. Although Auburn entered as the top overall seed, they are No. 4 in Timanus' re-rank. Duke takes the top spot, followed by Auburn's next opponent, Florida, at No. 2. Houston grabs the No. 3 seed while the Tigers round out the field at No. 4.
Although the drop to No. 4 is unfortunate, Timanus brings up several key points for placing Auburn at the bottom of the field.
"It might seem odd to have the team that spent so much of the season ranked first in the coaches poll at the bottom of this list. But there are a couple of reasons. First, the Tigers, unlike the other three participants, did not win their league tournament. That is not always a good predictor of March success extending into April, of course, but Auburn was clearly playing its best basketball earlier in the campaign. Furthermore, Auburn has played all the other Final Four squads and only managed to beat one of them. Yes, star big man Johni Broome is fine after an injury scare in the Michigan State win, and the Tigers do know how to manage a quick turnaround situation as they did in Maui back in November. But they need to rediscover that cohesiveness to bring home the program’s first championship."
Auburn's place as the top overall seed for the NCAA Tournament was heavily criticized due to the Tigers dropping three of their final four games after wrapping up the SEC regular season championship with a win at Kentucky on March 1. Auburn fell in the polls and even the KenPom during its rough patch, but earned the benefit of the doubt by boasting the nation's best resume with 16 quad-1 wins.
However, Auburn appears to be back on the right track as three of their four NCAA Tournament wins to this point have been by over 10 points, with three of those wins coming against "quad-1" teams. Auburn will have one, possibly two, more chances to prove they are the same team that dominated the regular season this weekend at the Final Four.
Their first chance comes Saturday at 5:09 p.m. CT when Auburn faces the Florida Gators.
This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: Auburn falls to No. 4 in March Madness re-seed from USA TODAY Sports
