Bubble watch: Auburn's NCAA Tournament outlook after Tennessee loss
· Yahoo Sports
Auburn basketball's journey to an SEC Tournament championship ended Thursday with a 72-62 loss to the Tennessee Volunteers. Now, they must wait to learn their NCAA Tournament fate.
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A strong SEC Tournament showing could have nailed down a spot in the NCAA Tournament, which begins next week. However, as has been the case for most of the SEC schedule, Auburn could not close the deal in its second-round matchup with Tennessee despite leading by 10 points with less than 11 minutes remaining.
Auburn's second-half collapse is the case Jim Root of The Athletic made for putting Auburn in the "in the mix" category in his latest NCAA Bubble Watch outlook. Root believes that Auburn has a strong case to make the NCAA Tournament due to solid metrics and owning four wins over Quad 1 competition. However, Auburn's 17-16 record is a great cause for concern.
Root says that Auburn must rely on several other "bubble teams" to lose to stay in the NCAA Tournament race.
Steven Pearl’s team could not close the deal against the Volunteers and will now have to bank on the rest of the bubble’s weakness and its elite schedule strength to sneak into the dance. No team has ever gotten in with 16 losses, nor has anyone made the field with a record only one game above .500 overall. Auburn must hope for special consideration to sneak into Dayton.
Heading into Friday's conference tournament action, Auburn remains in the "First Four Out" category of ESPN's latest Bracketology. However, their greatest competition is now Oklahoma after the Sooners stunned Texas A&M on Thursday night with a 20-point win, and are slated to face Arkansas on Friday at 8:30 p.m. CT.
Other teams to watch for include New Mexico and San Diego State, which play each other in the Mountain West Conference semifinals on Friday, and Seton Hall, which plays UConn on Friday in the Big East semifinals. Other bubble teams, such as Cincinnati, Stanford, and Indiana, have all been eliminated from their respective conference tournaments.
The NCAA Tournament selection show is set for Sunday at 5 p.m. CT.
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This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: Auburn basketball's NCAA Tournament outlook after SEC Tournament loss