Auburn enters NCAA Tournament as 2 seed, will face Jacksonville State in opening round

Auburn will face off against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks to open March Madness.

The Tigers have received what appears to be favorable draw in the NCAA Tournament.

Auburn will be the 2 seed in the midwest region of the tourney, opening up against 15 seed Jacksonville State.

The Gamecocks did not win their conference tournament. In fact, Bellarmine did. But because the Bellarmine Knights has just recently made the move to Division I, they aren't able to participate in the postseason. So, the ASUN conference selected Jacksonville State as their auto bid because the Gamecocks had won the regular season title with a conference record of 13-3.

Auburn opens as a 16.5 point favorite according to CBS Sports. KenPom gives the Gamecocks only a 9% chance to win.

An early look at Jax State is pretty telling as to why the line is so large. They're undersized, slower paced, and struggle offensively when their star player Darian Adams isn't able to get things going.

What the Gamecocks have going for them is their three point shooting. Jax State is shooting 38.2% from beyond the arc, which is 11th nationally.

If the Tigers can shut down the perimeter, they should be in a good position to win the opening game. After Jacksonville State, there would be a matchup with either Miami or USC in the round of 32.

You can take a look at the entire bracket here.

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