Auburn Daily

Auburn Tigers Roster Full of ‘Underdog Kids’

The team might be the top seed in college basketball, but the underdog mentaility is there among Bruce Pearl and the Auburn Tigers

Austin Walls

Auburn has done nothing but exceed expectations, and they intend to keep doing so
Auburn has done nothing but exceed expectations, and they intend to keep doing so / Steve Roberts-Imagn Images
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Heading into the 2025 NCAA Tournament, head coach Bruce Pearl and the No. 1 overall seed Auburn Tigers have been in a bit of a rut. The Tigers have lost three of the last four and are looking for a turnaround in the first few games of the tournament. Pearl believes that this isn’t his traditional successful team. 

The best way to understand what Pearl was saying is that the team doesn’t have any Cooper Flaggs in terms of how they came to the team. One of the candidates for the Naismith College Player of the Year is Johni Broome. Broome didn’t have a single power conference offer. Broome started his career at Morehead State, playing there for two seasons before transferring to the Tigers. 

Broome is not the other one with a similar story. According to NBC Sports, Chad Baker-Mazara transferred three different times before finally ending up at Auburn. Other players like Chaney Johnson and Denver Jones spent time playing for junior college teams and Division II teams. Miles Kelly was at Georgia Tech and suffered through three losing seasons there. 

Now this season, the Tigers have gone 28-5 and are one of the favorites to win the NCAA Tournament. 

“Think about this: There wasn’t that much expected from Auburn at the start of the season,” coach Bruce Pearl said. “Good team, older team, probably won’t win the league but be a tournament team. All of a sudden, this team is No. 1 in the country for six or seven weeks. Now a bunch of underdog kids from mid-majors, different levels have to live up to what that expectation is.”

The Tigers will face the 16-seed Alabama State Hornets in their first game in the tournament. Should they win, they will face the winner of the eight-nine-seed matchup in Louisville versus Creighton in the Round of 32. 

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Austin Walls
AUSTIN WALLS

Austin Walls is a University of Florida Sports Journalism graduate. He has covered different sports, from motorsport, professional and college football, professional and college basketball, women's basketball and hockey among others. He has spent most of his time focusing on the SEC Conference, but has spent time covering the AAC, MWC and ACC.

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