Steven Pearl says Auburn 'deserves' NCAA berth after SEC exit - ESPN

NASHVILLE — With a loss to No. 25 Tennessee in the SEC tournament quarterfinals on Thursday afternoon, Auburn (17-16) enters an uneasy 72 hours squarely on the NCAA tournament's bubble.

In the wake of squandering a 10-point lead the game's final 10:26 in a 72-62 loss, Auburn coach Steve Pearl stumped hard for his team's inclusion in the NCAA tournament.

If Auburn's name is called, they'd be the first at-large team in NCAA tournament history to get in with 16 losses. Pearl made clear that the strength of Auburn's schedule, which includes seven wins in Quad 1 and Quad 2 games, should deliver them a bid.

«Our guys have some of the best wins in college basketball, and this team deserves to be in a tournament,» Pearl said Thursday. «It's a team that can win games in the tournament, and I think they've done enough, ultimately, to have their name called on Selection Sunday.»

Pearl acknowledged with a smile to ESPN that he'd heard from someone on his staff about Miami University's loss in the MAC tournament — that school's first of the season — about an hour before Auburn's tip. That Miami loss to UMass could end up taking away an at-large bid from Auburn, as it pushes Miami to the at-large pool. And it again squared the two programs — at least comparatively — against each other.

Steven Pearl's father, former Auburn coach Bruce Pearl, created a few days of headlines earlier this month when he remarked that Miami would finish in the bottom half of some power leagues. When Miami lost on Thursday, a spree of on-line predictions about Miami playing Auburn in the First Four began springing up on-line.

When asked about potentially playing Miami in Dayton by ESPN on Thursday, Steven Pearl said: «I hope we do. It would mean that two