Auburn arrives in San Antonio for Final Four

SAN ANTONIO – The Auburn basketball team departed Wednesday for the Final Four the same way it arrived three days earlier, amid much fanfare.

With hundreds of cheering fans lined up outside Neville Arena, the team reverse Tiger walked to the bus that drove them to Montgomery, where they boarded a charter flight for San Antonio, Texas.

Sixty hours earlier, hundreds of Auburn University students and fans greeted the Tigers when they returned from Atlanta after defeating Michigan State 70-64 to win the NCAA Tournament South Regional.

The pageantry continued when Auburn arrived in Texas Thursday afternoon, welcomed by a Mariachi band in the hangar with the national championship trophy displayed on a nearby table.   

In advancing to the Final Four, the 2025 Tigers joined Auburn’s 2019 team, whose banner drapes outside the arena.

“I want to make our own history,” said Dylan Cardwell Sunday, holding the regional championship trophy in the victorious locker room at State Farm Arena. “BP (Bruce Pearl) has the saying – make history – I want to make history for Dylan Cardwell and this sets me apart. I’m grateful for the opportunity.

“The 2019 team, we wouldn’t be here without them. They put us on the map. They’re the cornerstone of the program, but it was time for us to make our own history.”

Auburn’s march to the Final Four creates synergy that ripples throughout the athletic department, says head football coach Hugh Freeze, who attended Auburn’s Sweet 16 and Elite Eight victories in Atlanta over Michigan and Michigan State, respectively, and plans to attend Auburn’s game Saturday in San Antonio. 

“I had a blast being in Atlanta,” Freeze said Tuesday morning at Auburn’s spring football practice. “To see the way they’re competing and representing Auburn. I don’t think there’s any way we can quantify or measure what that does for all of us.

“I’m thankful for Bruce, his friendship. I’m happy as heck for he, his family and his players. You turn on the TV and Auburn is being talked about. Charles Barkley is talking about us all the time. 

“They force people to recognize the season, arguably maybe the most difficult SEC league in the history of basketball. For them to win it and get to the Final Four speaks volumes about the job that Bruce, his staff and his kids have done. 

“We benefit from it too. We’ve got three top recruits here today and one of the first things we’ll talk about is the basketball team. We all benefit from it.”

With two days in Texas to soak in the experience and prepare for Saturday’s all-SEC national semifinal showdown with Florida, Auburn (32-5) will practice Thursday and Friday at the Alamodome.

Only two more victories stand between the Tigers and triumph on their sport’s biggest stage.

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer