After a blowout 79-61 loss to No. 10 seed Miami in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl didn’t mince words when discussing the SEC record in the Big Dance.
“The SEC will be crushed for our tournament performances. We just fought all year. It was just a chore. We didn’t show it in the tournament,” Pearl said.
Five of the tournament’s six SEC teams failed to qualify for the Sweet 16, and all five were eliminated by a double-digit seed.
- No. 15 Saint Peter’s vs. No. 2 Kentucky – First Round
- No. 11 Notre Dame over No. 6 Alabama – first round
- No. 11 Iowa State over No. 6 LSU — first round
- Michigan No. 11 vs. Tennessee No. 3 – second round
- No. 10 Miami vs. No. 2 Auburn – second round
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The only SEC school to advance to the second weekend of the tournament is No. 4 Arkansas, which dispatched No. 13 seed Vermont in the first round. The Razorbacks then defeated No. 12 New Mexico State in the second round.
The SEC was considered by many to be the toughest college basketball conference in the nation this season, and Pearl’s comments after the game alluded to the league’s difficulty during the regular season.
But maybe the SEC hasn’t been as badly hit as many thought. Either way, with only Arkansas advancing, it was a disappointing weekend for one of the top basketball conferences in the nation.
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