After collapsing in the second half of a game versus Missouri in the first-round of the SEC Tournament, Auburn will not accept a postseason bid unless invited to the National Invitational Tournament, Bruce Pearl announced on Friday.
Auburn (18-14), needed to have strong showing in this weeks SEC Tournament in hopes of receiving an NIT bid.
On Wednesday night in Bridgestone Arena, the hope of an NIT bid was more than likely shut down by Kim Anderson and the conference worst Missouri Tigers.
“One of our expectations this year, one of our goals was to go to postseason,” Pearl said. “And at this level, postseason means the NCAA Tournament or the NIT. That’s absolutely not to take away from any of the other postseason tournaments. But sometimes you have to honor tradition and also recognize that we had lots of opportunities to win our way into either tournament and we weren’t able to do it. I don’t want to be able to say that this was the first team in awhile that’s gotten to post season, cause it hasn’t.”
Pearl said his decision to hold Auburn out of the postseason CBI tournament was backed by the Administration at Auburn, and his coaching staff.
“I have too much respect for the teams that went to postseason to call this a postseason team,” Pearl said.
“Next year our expectations should be to be in the NCAA Tournament,” Pearl said.
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