Hopes for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament remain intact for the Auburn men's basketball team after its unexpected win over No. 11 LSU Saturday.
But despite a 10-6 SEC record and 21-10 overall record, many college basketball analysts nationwide are still leaving Auburn out of bracket discussions, and head coach Jeff Lebo knows it.
"You can look at numbers all you want, but the numbers will not dictate how well our team is playing right now," Lebo said following his team's upset of the Bayou Bengals, who are now ranked 16th.
"I'm not one to toot my own horn, but I've got to for these guys. We've won eight out of (our last nine games) and to say that we're not even in the mix is a slap in the face of our guys and the SEC in my opinion."
With their backs against the wall in a must-win game, the Tigers handled SEC Champion LSU 69-53 (25-6, 13-3) to close out the regular season in front of a rowdy 11,007 at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum.
In his final game at Auburn, senior Korvotney Barber had 16 points and 17 rebounds in the winning effort, and wrapped up a double-double before halftime. LSU's Marcus Thornton had a game-high 23 points.
"Hard work pays off," Barber said when asked about his career at Auburn. "We just put in the work. We did come as freshman and didn't have good seasons, but we stayed focused and stayed together and kept working. When you're losing its real hard to stay together at times, but you find a way to stay together as a team and it paid off at the end."
Barber and fellow seniors Rasheem Barrett, Quantez Robertson and Drew Smith were honored at the game for Senior Day.
"I'm just so proud of my team, especially my seniors," Lebo said. "They are four guys that have meant a lot to me personally and a lot to this basketball program. It's very gratifying as a coach to see them go out in this way."
Since Auburn's tight 78-77 win over Tennessee Feb.7, the Tigers have become one of the hottest teams in the conference.
No SEC team with 10 regular season conference wins has ever been left out of the NCAA Tournament.
Adding to the Tigers' resume, Auburn and Alabama are the only teams to beat both the East and West champs - Tennessee and LSU.
"If you practice hard and play hard you'll get good results," Barrett said. "Where we go after that is where we're going to play."
Because Auburn finished second in the SEC West, the Tigers have earned a first round bye in the SEC Tournament, which begins today in Tampa, Fla. Auburn will play tomorrow at 8:45 p.m. CST against the Game 4 winner, which will be either Florida (22-9, 9-7) or Arkansas (14-15, 2-14.)
Auburn won both of its contests with the Razorbacks this season. The first came on Jan. 24, a 73-51 thrashing in Fayetteville, Ark. The Razorbacks then traveled to Auburn Feb. 11 and lost again, 75-62. Auburn was ahead with less than four minutes to play, but the Tigers lost the lead and the game, 68-65.
If the Tigers advance to the semifinals, they will face either SEC East champion Tennessee, Vanderbilt or Alabama Saturday.
Lebo's squad suffered its sixth loss of the season to Florida on Jan. 14, the only meeting between the Tigers and Gators this season.
The championship game will be played Sunday at 1 p.m. The winner of the tournament receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
"We just have to worry about our conference tournament and whoever we have to play next," Robertson said. "We just have to get ready and prepare for them. We can't worry about what the writers say about the NCAA tournament. If we get picked, we get picked."
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