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Can Johni Broome lead Auburn to its first NCAA championship? (Photo by Stew Milne/Getty Images)
Stew Milne via Getty Images
The NCAA men's tournament bracket was revealed on Sunday with Auburn announced as the No. 1 seed playing out of the South region.
How Auburn got here
Auburn secured the No. 1 overall seed thanks to winning the SEC regular season and producing a 28-5 record while playing the nation’s second-hardest schedule.
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The Tigers lost three of their last four games, including a defeat to Tennessee in the SEC tournament semifinal. But the NCAA tournament committee overlooked Auburn’s late-season struggles and rewarded an overall résumé that features the best record in an SEC that was one of the toughest conferences in NCAA history.
Auburn edged out a 31-3 Duke team loaded with projected NBA talent that beat Auburn in December and was historically dominant in a 19-1 conference run to the ACC regular-season title. Duke then backed up its regular season with an ACC tournament championship and enters NCAA tournament play with a nation’s best 20.8-point average margin of victory.
If Cooper Flagg returns healthy from a sprained ankle, Duke will be the favorite to win the championship in the eyes of many. But it was dinged by the committee for its strength of schedule (57th) while playing in a down ACC.
Auburn, meanwhile, produced the nation’s most Quad 1 wins while going 16-5 against Quad 1 opponents. Each of Auburn’s five losses (Duke, Tennessee, Florida, Texas A&M, Alabama) came against teams that will be highly seeded in the NCAA tournament. Led by National Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome, Auburn will look to convert the No. 1 overall seed into the program’s first NCAA championship.
South region
No. 1 Auburn vs. No. 16 Alabama State/Saint Francis
No. 8 Louisville vs. No. 9 Creighton
No. 5 Michigan vs. No. 12 UC San Diego
No. 4 Texas A&M vs No. 13 Yale
No. 6 Ole Miss vs. No. 11 San Diego State/No. 11 North Carolina
No. 3 Iowa State vs. No. 14 Lipscomb
No. 7 Marquette vs. No. 10 New Mexico
No. 2 Michigan State vs. No. 15 Bryant
East region
No. 1 Duke vs. American/No. 16 Mount St. Mary's
No. 8 Mississippi State vs. No. 9 Baylor
No. 5 Oregon vs. No. 12 Liberty
No. 4 Arizona vs. No. 13 Akron
No. 6 BYU vs. VCU
No. 3 Wisconsin vs. No. 14 Montana
No. 7 Saint Mary's vs. No. 10 Vanderbilt
No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 15 Robert Morris
Midwest region
TBA
West region
TBA
This is a breaking news story that will be updated.
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