AUBURN, Ala. – For anyone wondering why a team that narrowly missed out on the NCAA Tournament would want to play in the NIT, Auburn coach Steven Pearl answers that question with one of his own.
Why wouldn’t we?
“We’re all here to compete,” Pearl said. “I’m not going to duck away from an opportunity to prepare and compete and play basketball. I’m not going to take my ball and go home because we didn’t make the tournament.
“I see it as an unbelievable opportunity for our guys to compete on a stage. Most of our games will probably be on ESPN. There are a lot of people in college basketball who would love to be able to do that.”
While no one was more disappointed than Pearl, his assistant coaches and Auburn’s student-athletes to be uninvited to the Big Dance, the NIT still offers the Tigers a chance for a championship if they can string together five consecutive wins.
“Our goal is to not play in the NIT,” he said. “Our goal is to play in the NCAA Tournament and advance in the NCAA Tournament but that didn’t happen this year. We get an opportunity to play in a tournament that’s nationally televised and continue to play basketball for these next few weeks if we’re able to advance.”
Standing in Auburn’s way is South Alabama, a 21-win team from the Sun Belt Conference that will be motivated to knock off an in-state SEC opponent.
“They’re going to be really excited about this game,” Pearl said. “Our guys are going to have to get up for it because we’re going to have our hands full because they play an interesting style, they have two high-major players on their roster, and our guys have to be ready because they’re going to be coming in her with their hair on fire trying to knock us off.”
Relying exclusively on zone defenses, the Jaguars look to Sun Belt Player of the Year Chaze Harris, who averages 18.9 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game.
The NIT’s No. 1 seed, Auburn (17-16) hosts South Alabama (21-11) Tuesday at 9 p.m. CT on ESPN2 and the Auburn Sports Network, where Andy Burcham and Randall Dickey will call the action for listeners.
General admission tickets are $25 with free admission for Auburn University students. The NIT matchup caps a busy day on the Plains that begins with the first spring football practice of the Alex Golesh era, continues with a 4 p.m. CT top-5 baseball game between No. 4 Auburn and No. 3 Georgia Tech, then culminates with a late night at Neville.
“It’s on us as coaches but also as players to continue to have joy in playing basketball,” Pearl said.
“It’s a nationally televised game against a team that’s in our state at home in a national tournament. That should be all the motivation they need. Let’s go play. Let’s go hoop and have some fun with it.”
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer