NCAA insider claims Bruce Pearl and Auburn’s dominant form has them playing "loose" ahead of March Madness

Bruce Pearl's No. 1 Auburn Tigers crashed out in the semifinal of the SEC tournament on Saturday. Bruce Pearl's team lost 75-60 to the No. 4 Tennessee Volunteers, losing their chances of securing an automatic ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

The Tigers claimed the first half with a narrow win 33-32. However, in the second half, they stumbled to a 38-32 defeat.

Following the loss, Rob Dauster and Jeff Goodman analyze the team's performance in "The Field Of 68" podcast on YouTube, shared on Sunday.

"I said this earlier, I feel like because they kept winning and winning and winning they got really loose and they had a lot of fun they do they talk a lot of Rob and they have fun," Goodman said (3:00). "Sometimes, I feel like Bruce might have let him get too far with some of that and now it's like get down a business just play ball even Janai who I freaking love and he's Unstoppable.

"I feel like sometimes he's complaining to the refs too much you know talking a little bit to instead of just like get back to what made you guys so damn good early when you proved it every single game which was just kicking team's asses get back to that yeah."

Bruce Pearl defended his team despite loss

NCAA Basketball: SEC Conference Tournament Semifinal - Tennessee vs Auburn - Source: Imagn

During the post-match press conference, Bruce Pearl defended his team's performance in their loss to Tennessee.

“Our guys are great competitors. I’m very, very proud of them. I believe that this team has from start to finish done enough to be the No. 1 overall seed in this tournament,” Pearl said.

“Our résumé is historically one of the strongest résumés in the history of college basketball with the number of Quad 1 wins we’ve had. Certainly losing to Tennessee as a team ranked fifth or sixth in the country is not necessarily — shouldn’t knock us off that spot.”

Auburn also lost their number one spot in the 2025 latest AP rankings. They are now third in the rankings with a total of 1407, with Duke Blue Devils claiming the top spot.