Auburn’s 2018-19 season was a successful follow-up to its SEC regular-season championship 2017-18 season. Auburn appeared in its first SEC Tournament finals since 2000 and finished the season with back-to-back 25-win seasons for the first time in program history.
And now, they're headed to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments for the first time since the 1986-87 to 1987-88 seasons.
Announced this evening on CBS’s Selection Sunday show, Auburn is headed back to the Big Dance as a 5-seed, beginning play in Salt Lake City. The Tigers will open with 12-seed New Mexico State in the Round of 64.
The New Mexico State Aggies got to the big dance by way of winning the Western Athletic Conference Tournament under second year head coach Chris Jans. The Aggies are no strangers to the tournament and have 24 appearances in school history going a combined 10-26.
New Mexico State (30-4, 15-1 in the WAC) is coming off a successful season in which they averaged 78.1 points a game and have not lost since January 3, its one and only conference loss. The Aggies have also shown capable of hanging with bigger schools as they narrowly lost to Kansas 63-60 earlier this season.
Coach Chris Jans, is a finalist for the Hugh Durham Award which is awarded to the best mid-major coach in the country. Under Jans the Aggies have complied a record of 58-10 combined between his two seasons at the helm. In 2018-19, they set the program record for most wins in a single-season, a record which they tied in his first season.
The Midwest Region of the bracket is going to be a tough place to play in from top to bottom. The region has "blue blood" schools like Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky. While also featuring some schools whose basketball programs are on the rise like Auburn, Houston and Iowa State.
Midwest Region:
No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 16 Iona
No. 8 Utah State vs. No. 9 Washington
No. 5 Auburn vs. No. 12 New Mexico State
No. 4 Kansas vs. No. 13 Northeastern
No. 6 Iowa State vs. No. 11 Ohio State
No. 3 Houston vs. No. 14 Georgia State
No. 7 Wofford vs. No. 10 Seton Hall
No. 2 Kentucky vs. No. 15 Abilene Christian
Auburn made the tournament for the first time under coach Bruce Pearl in 2017-18 as an at-large bid. Auburn went in as a 4-seed and defeated College of Charleston in the Round of 64 before being bested by Clemson in the Round of 32.
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