No. 1 seed Auburn set to host South Alabama in NIT opening round

In the current age of college sports, things can change quickly. 

Auburn’s men’s basketball program was hit with that harsh reality on Sunday when it learned it would not receive one of the final at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament, just one year after going to the Final Four.

After taking in the heartbreak, Steven Pearl and his coaching staff had a decision to make. After processing the news that Auburn wouldn’t be headed to March Madness for the first time since 2021, the Tigers decided to accept a bid to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and received the No. 1 overall seed.

“The guys on my roster are here to play basketball,” Pearl said. “I’m not going to take my ball and go home because we didn’t make the tournament.” 

Although it's not the result anyone on the Plains wanted, the opportunity to continue the season will provide Pearl’s young squad with valuable practice and game reps. Auburn hopes that giving players such as Elyjah Freeman, Sebastian Williams-Adams and Filip Jović, among others, additional time in the program will encourage them to return next season. The Tigers are only graduating two seniors in the rotation, so the extra time is vital.

“Part of this decision was being around guys that we want to come back next season…more practices, maybe some more games,” Pearl said. 

As of Monday afternoon, Pearl expects all of his players to suit up on Tuesday night against South Alabama. 

“Everybody was upset for not making the tournament,” Pearl said. “I told them to sleep on it. As of now, nobody has called me or my staff saying that they’re not playing.”

The Jaguars finished with a 21-11 record and sixth in the Sun Belt Conference. Head coach Richie Riley’s group secured back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since 2008-09 and will make the trip from Mobile, Alabama, hungry to pull off an upset. 

“I think our guys will be amped up, ready to play, and I do think we’re reasonably sharp,” Riley said, according to AL.com. 

South Alabama is led by Sun Belt Player of the Year Chaze Harris, who averaged 18.9 points per game during the season. The senior guard has recorded double figures in 29 games and could cause problems for Auburn if they don’t come out playing with a sense of urgency. 

“We’ve got to go in there with some toughness and we’ve got to go in there and be able to handle the environment,” Riley added, according to AL.com. “It’s one of the toughest places in America to play and it doesn’t matter — NIT, SEC play, whatever it is, they come out and they support them.”

Tipoff Tuesday night is set for 9 p.m. CST, and the game will be televised on ESPN2.

If the Tigers take care of business, they will face the winner of Seattle and St. Thomas (MN) in the second round. 

“I just see it as an unbelievable opportunity for our guys to go out there and compete on a stage,” Pearl said. “Most of our games will probably be on ESPN and there’s a lot of people in college basketball that would love to do that.”