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Auburn basketball’s NCAA Tournament resume for March Madness: Jan. 6

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Auburn basketball’s NCAA Tournament resume for March Madness: Jan. 6

Sure, Auburn basketball is just getting into its SEC schedule and the second-ranked Tigers are still a few games away from reaching the halfway point of their regular season.

But the NCAA Tournament projections are already well underway, and they favor the Tigers to be the highest seed in the field of 64 come March Madness.

It’s the earliest signal that the race to March is well underway, and there are several criteria the selection committee looks at in making its assessment, in addition to subjective factors like the “eyeball test.” Among them:

  • Record: The team’s overall record, conference record, and nonconference record. 
  • Strength of schedule: The strength of the teams the team played against.
  • Head-to-head results: The results of games between the teams being compared.
  • Conference championships: Whether a conference championship was won in the regular season, or tournament. 
  • Common opponents: The results of games against common opponents.
  • Adjusted Net Efficiency (NET): The NCAA’s preferred metric measuring a team’s overall performance during the regular season.
  • Team Value Index: A results-oriented component of the NET that ranks teams based on who they beat and where they played.
  • Rating Percentage Index (RPI): A formula that ranks teams using a team’s winning percentage, opponents’ success and opponents’ strength of schedule.

While Auburn is comfortably seeded as the best team in the country, it’ll be looking to maintain that status after being on the wrong end of a first-round upset in last year’s tournament, when 13-seed Yale spoiled the Tigers’ tournament hopes in Spokane, Washington.

Each week moving forward, the Advertiser will take a look back at the Tigers’ previous week and assess their NCAA Tournament resume.

How Auburn basketball fared last week

  • No. 2 Auburn 87, Monmouth 58 (Dec. 30 at Neville Arena): The Tigers’ sixth low-quad opportunity of the season saw them log another blowout, and their 29-point margin of victory was just their sixth-largest margin this season.
  • No. 2 Auburn 84, Missouri 68 (Jan. 4 at Neville Arena): The SEC-opener saw Auburn coast to another victory, trailing for all of 21 seconds against Missouri. It was far from perfect, however, giving the Tigers a few things to clean up as they head on the road for the next week.

Auburn basketball’s NET ranking

All rankings entering Monday’s games.

  • NET Ranking: No. 1 (No. 1 SEC)
    • Quad 1 record: 6-1
    • Quad 2 record: 0-0
    • Quad 3 record: 1-0
    • Quad 4 record: 5-0

Auburn basketball’s KenPom ranking

All rankings entering Monday.

  • Net Rating: +36.69 (No. 1)
  • Offensive efficiency: 130.5 (No. 1)
  • Defensive efficiency: 93.8 (No. 14)

Here’s where Auburn sits in other metric rankings:

Auburn basketball’s Bracketology projections

  • ESPN (as of Jan. 3): Top overall seed, South Region (Atlanta)
    • First-round matchup: 16-seed Southern/Leigh
  • On3 (as of Jan. 5): Top overall seed, South Region (Atlanta)
    • First-round matchup: 16-seed Southern/Little Rock

Next up for Auburn basketball

  • Matchup: No. 2 Auburn (13-1, 1-0 SEC) at Texas (11-3, 0-1)
  • Tipoff: 8 p.m. CST Tuesday; Moody Center, Austin
  • TV/Radio: ESPN2; WLWI FM 92.3 (Montgomery), WGZZ FM 94.3 (Auburn)

Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.

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