Basketball News: 4-7-2026
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Dudley Dent
Apr 7, 2026, 7:51:15 AM (6 days ago) Apr 7
to Tiger Tracks
Auburn Basketball News: 4-7-2026
Five reasons why Auburn beat Tulsa to win its first NIT Championship:
https://auburnwire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/auburn/mens-basketball/2026/04/06/auburn-tulsa-five-stats-nit-championship-win-basketball/89479987007/
Auburn basketball sent clear edict on what would make NIT win 'worthwhile':
https://flywareagle.com/auburn-basketball-sent-clear-edict-what-would-make-nit-win-worthwhile
After everything, Auburn found the right ending:
https://www.on3.com/teams/auburn-tigers/news/after-everything-auburn-found-the-right-ending/
'They played for Auburn.' Steven Pearl praises team for NIT title win:
https://auburnwire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/auburn/mens-basketball/2026/04/06/auburn-tigers-steven-pearl-reacts-nit-championship-sec-basketball/89482804007/
Elyjah Freeman discusses future with Auburn after NIT Championship win:
https://auburnwire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/auburn/mens-basketball/2026/04/06/auburn-basketball-elyjah-freeman-return-nit-championship/89482112007/
Worries arising on Tahaad Pettiford transferring after Auburn basketball's NIT win:
https://flywareagle.com/worries-arising-tahaad-pettiford-transferring-after-auburn-basketball-nit-win
Auburn was mocked for NIT trip, now gets last laugh:
https://www.al.com/auburnbasketball/2026/04/casagrande-auburn-was-mocked-for-nit-trip-now-gets-last-laugh.html
Auburn's NIT Win Evidence They Were Snubbed From NCAA Tournament:
https://www.si.com/college/auburn/basketball/auburn-s-nit-win-made-strong-case-snubbed-march-madness
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Five reasons why Auburn beat Tulsa to win its first NIT Championship
By Phillip Jordan
Auburn Wire
The Auburn Tigers are the 2026 NIT Champions after defeating Tulsa in overtime, 92-86, on Sunday.
Auburn held a 21-point first-half lead before allowing Tulsa to make a comeback in the second half. It took a lot of effort from this team to battle back after losing the big lead. Auburn had five players in double figures scoring. The backcourt combination of Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin Overton combined for 50 of the 92 points scored for Auburn. This is a win that can help the Tigers get momentum for next season with the potential for several players to return in 2026-27.
Here are five key stats from Auburn's 92-86 overtime win versus Tulsa for the 2026 NIT Championship.
Kevin Overton
That is all that needs to be said about this win for the Tigers. Kevin Overton saved the day with the three that sent the game to overtime, but he was great for the Tigers throughout the game. He led Auburn in scoring with 26 points, and he was five of eight from three-point land in the game. He had a clutch three-pointer in overtime that put the Tigers up 89-84 that pushed them to victory.
Keyshawn Hall foul trouble
Keyshawn Hall did not have much of an impact in scoring for the Tigers due to foul trouble. Auburn was up by 12 points in the second half when Hall went out with his fourth foul. When he made it back in the game Auburn had given up the lead. He was effective in rebounding though with 12 in the game.
Three-point shooting
One of the concerns for head coach Steven Pearl coming into the NIT Championship was the ability of Tulsa to make three-point shots. Auburn held Tulsa to just 6 of 27 shooting at 23% for the game. Auburn was not great but better than Tulsa making 11 of 27 from long range at 41%.
Auburn shared the basketball
For most of the game Auburn did a good job at sharing the basketball. The Tigers had 19 assists in the game versus 12 for the Golden Hurricane. Tahaad Pettiford led the Tigers with eight in the game, and Filip Jovic was second with four. Pettiford was second on the team in scoring with 24 points.
Rebounding
Auburn won the rebounding battle in the game 39-34. Winning that part of the game became tough late in the game when Hall and Jovic both fouled out. This forced Auburn to play a smaller lineup, but as a team they were able to still control the boards. The Tigers had 13 offensive rebounds, and also had 18 second chance points in the win.
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Auburn basketball sent clear edict on what would make NIT win 'worthwhile'
By Andrew Hughes
Fly War Eagle
The Auburn Tigers won their first NIT championship on Sunday night, and in the aftermath, fans are split on whether or not to truly celebrate the win. Not making March Madness is how Steven Pearl's first season on the Plains will be defined. Still, overcoming the adversity of a torn locker room that saw KeShawn Murphy abruptly opt out of the NIT can't be ignored either.
In a piece titled "Behold, the biggest stooge in college basketball history," written about Murphy's opt-out, AL.com's Joseph Goodman claimed that the Tigers' consolation title would be "worthwhile" if Pearl can keep its core pieces.
"It wasn’t the NCAA Tournament, but hopefully the momentum it created carries over into the offseason," Goodman prefaced before saying, "If Auburn can retain some of its core pieces — namely Tahaad Pettiford, Elyjah Freeman, Kevin Overton, Sebastian Williams-Adams and Blake Muschalek — then it was all worthwhile."
Auburn's NIT was worthwhile no matter what
Auburn didn't mow down a murderer's row of opponents in the NIT. There were good teams in their path, which included the South Alabama Jaguars, Seattle Redhawks, Nevada Wolfpack, Illinois State Redbirds, and Tulsa Golden Hurricane, but a program as well-funded as AU should be beating these opponents.
With that said, after all of the whining from Bruce Pearl about his son's team not making the tournament on national television during March Madness coverage, this run was needed to show that Steven is willing to pay his dues. Steven never asked for the spotlight Bruce is giving him, but he responded after his team became a punchline across the country for those who don't appreciate high-level nepotism.
Steven earned respect from the NIT. If that respect resonates with the players who won those games on the court, it's a cherry on top. Truth be told, this NIT run was a an important display to transfers and recruits from across the country to show that Auburn isn't all bark and no bite in the post-Bruce era.
This run was already worthwhile. Only by the slimmest of margins, though, since Sunday night's title game could've been the biggest disaster had the Tigers ended up losing after blowing a 17-point halftime lead.
Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. That's fine, since Pearl and Auburn actually hit the mark and handled business and adversity well.
Oh, and as a bonus, the Tigers may have just saved the NIT for at least an extra year, since there were actual stakes to the consolation tournament this year.
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After everything, Auburn found the right ending
By Justin Hokanson
The ending of this season feels important.
Not because the NIT is what Auburn set out to win. It wasn’t. Everybody around the program knows that. The goal was to make the NCAA Tournament. The goal was to build something steady in Steven Pearl’s first season and make a real run in March.
That didn’t quite happen.
But after everything this team dealt with this year, ending the season by winning the NIT still feels like it matters.
This season was never normal from the jump. Bruce Pearl retired in September. That alone changed everything. Players like Tahaad Pettiford and Keyshawn Hall had to decide whether to remain or enter the transfer portal. They remained.
The younger Pearl had to take over a program with expectations following a Final Four season, one season removed from the greatest team in program history and a roster that was going to have to figure some things out in real time. Some nights, Auburn looked like a team that could beat just about anybody. Other nights, it looked exactly like a team going through transition.
And honestly, that’s what this whole season was.
There were ugly blowout losses early to powerhouse programs Michigan, Arizona and Purdue, that made people wonder where this thing was headed. There were also really good wins like beating St. John’s, Arkansas and Florida that reminded you the roster had enough talent to make noise. Auburn got off to a strong start in SEC play and for a while, it looked like the season might settle in the right direction.
Then it didn’t.
The finish to league play was rough. The offense stalled at times. The defensive consistency wasn’t present all season and collapsed completely late. The confidence didn’t look the same. A team that had spent months trying to prove it belonged in the NCAA Tournament ended up having to shift mentally and accept a different path following a disappointing Selection Sunday.
That’s not easy for any team. It’s especially not easy for one that had already been through as much as Auburn had. Then KeShawn Murphy didn’t show up for practice the following Monday and opted out of the postseason, adding another blow to a team that had to be reeling at that point.
And that’s why the NIT run ended up saying something about this group.
A lot of teams could have checked out. Many fans claimed the team checked out in February. A lot of teams would have treated it like leftover basketball and just gone through the motions. Auburn didn’t do that. It leaned into it at Pearl’s direction.
The Tigers treated it like a real opportunity and over the last few games, they looked like a team playing freer, sharing the ball better and finally enjoying themselves again.
Young guys like Filip Jovic, Elyjah Freeman and Sebastian Williams-Adams grew up in the process. Veterans like Kevin Overton, Pettiford and Hall kept showing up. Auburn looked more connected. More relaxed. More like a team that had stopped worrying about what the season wasn’t and started making the most of what it still could be.
True, Auburn looked like its old self again in the second half against Tulsa and nearly blew a 21-point lead. But Overton helped save the day and in overtime, the Tigers made one final push to the finish.
“I’m proud of our guys, lesser character kids, lesser character young men, would have folded it up and just gone into the offseason,” Pearl said on Sunday night. “This group didn’t.”
That’s a great way to finish it.
This team had every reason to let the season drift after missing the NCAA Tournament. Critics said Auburn should turn down the NIT bid and avoid the embarrassment. They were wrong. That much is clear now.
Instead, it regrouped and won five straight games to end it. It found a way to make the ending feel like something worth remembering.
There will be pressure on Pearl next season. The resources are there to build a competitive roster and the expectation is to make the NCAA Tournament every year. Anything short of that won’t be acceptable to Pearl or those around the program.
This season definitely didn’t go exactly how Auburn wanted. But by the end of it, these players still gave themselves something real to show for it.
The last few weeks wasn’t quite a traditional March Madness run, but it’s far from nothing, either.
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'They played for Auburn.' Steven Pearl praises team for NIT title win
By Taylor Jones
Auburn Wire
Auburn basketball turned a sour situation into positivity on Sunday by winning its first-ever NIT Championship after missing a bid to compete in the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight season.
Auburn accepted a bid to compete in the NIT after finishing with a 17-16 regular-season record, which was understandably disappointing for a program that has become a mainstay in the NCAA Tournament since 2018. However, the Tigers accepted their fate and chose to compete at a high level, which paid off with a championship. Auburn head coach Steven Pearl used his team's willingness to turn a tough situation into positivity following Sunday's 92-86 overtime win over Tulsa in Indianapolis.
“I’m incredibly grateful to these guys. They could’ve packed it up, and they didn’t. These are unbelievable young men with great character from great families. I’m incredibly honored and proud to be their coach," Pearl said Sunday. “They showed they love their university. They love Auburn, and they played for Auburn. They showed a ton of resilience. They showed what Auburn men are all about. It’s a great way to end the season.”
The momentum Auburn earned from its NIT run should carry over into next season, which could create an opportunity to return to the NCAA Tournament. Auburn rattled off five straight wins to close its campaign, with its final win testing them to their limits, as Tulsa erased a 21-point deficit to force overtime.
The next step for Auburn in its return to the NCAA Tournament is to build a winning roster. The two-week NCAA Transfer Portal window opens Tuesday, and it is expected that the futures of key players, including Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin Overton, will be decided in the coming days.
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Elyjah Freeman discusses future with Auburn after NIT Championship win
By Taylor Jones
Auburn Wire
Auburn basketball has plenty to celebrate as it just won its first NIT championship after being snubbed for an NCAA Tournament bid. However, roster building for the 2026-27 season begins now, as the NCAA Transfer Portal window for college basketball opens on Tuesday, April 7.
Auburn head coach Steven Pearl will meet with every underclassman over the next few days to discuss the season and their future with the program. While several players' futures with Auburn are unclear, one player appears ready to help Auburn return to the NCAA Tournament next season.
After Auburn's 92-86 overtime win over Tulsa on Sunday, several players were asked about their plans for next season, including guard Elyjah Freeman, who hauled in 14 rebounds for the Tigers in the NIT Championship win. According to Justin Hokanson of Auburn Rivals, Freeman had two words to say in response to a question about his status for next season.
"Locked in."
The news of Freeman's possible return is great for Auburn, as his "team-first" mentality played a role in the Tigers' deep postseason run. Freeman appeared in all 38 games, but he made just 21 starts, mostly due to his willingness to play bench minutes in exchange for freshman Sebastian Williams-Adams to receive starter minutes in several games this season, mostly in the middle of the season. In his first season on the Plains, the Lincoln Memorial transfer scored 9.2 points per game while hauling in 5.2 rebounds and recording 1.3 steals per contest.
The futures of several key players from Auburn's 2026-27 roster, including Keyshawn Hall and Keshawn Murphy, have been decided as they just completed their senior season. However, the likes of Kevin Overton, Tahaad Pettiford, Filip Jovic, and Kaden Magwood will have important decisions to make in the coming days.
The NCAA Transfer Portal window opens Tuesday, April 7, and will close on Tuesday, April 21.
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Worries arising on Tahaad Pettiford transferring after Auburn basketball's NIT win
By Andrew Hughes
Fly War Eagle
Tahaad Pettiford has many in the state of Alabama worried about his Auburn Tigers future, and whether or not he even has one, now that the 2025-26 season has officially concluded. All year, as Pettiford's production looked underwhelming relative to his role, rumbles of a potential transfer have been rattling the Auburn family's collective psyche.
The first order of business that AL.com's Jerry Humphrey believes Steven Pearl and new GM Brian Kloman have to address after the program's NIT championship win on Sunday is figuring out where/if at all, Pettiford is part of the plan.
"The million-dollar question after Auburn basketball’s NIT championship victory was what point guard Tahaad Pettiford’s future will look like with the Tigers," Humphrey wrote. Despite going through the NBA draft process after his freshman season, Pettiford returned to Auburn seeking to elevate his draft stock and make another run at the Final Four. Instead, Auburn missed the NCAA tournament after losing 16 games and settled for the NIT, defeating Tulsa 92-86 in the championship game.
"The transfer portal window will open from April 7-21. If Pettiford does decide to enter his name in the portal, he will have two years of eligibility remaining."
Auburn basketball should brace for losing Tahaad Pettiford
The team Pettiford signed up for is not the one he ended up playing for in his sophomore season. Every player should have an expectation that something like this is possible when they sign on the dotted line, but the 2024-25 Tigers' transformation into the 2025-26 was as dramatic as they come. Pettiford was the only player to return, and Bruce Pearl, the man who brought him to the Plains, handed the team off to his son to be a political pundit who sometimes talks about basketball.
Pettiford tried to recapture the magic, but the magic was gone. The Neville Arena was nowhere close to what it used to be during the late Bruce years. He helped win an NIT title, but many opposing schools can pay more and offer a product that made the NCAA Tournament.
All in all, don't be shocked if Pettiford finds a new home that's closer to winning it all immediately. Playing for Auburn put him in a spotlight that opportunistic spenders will surely take advantage of.
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Auburn was mocked for NIT trip, now gets last laugh
By Michael Casagrande
al.com
Auburn was mocked for accepting an NIT bid.
Don’t forget who made the jokes. Wasn’t me, that’s for sure.
Three weeks later, there’s a degree of satisfaction within a program that took an online beating this year.
OK, guilty there.
Not saying Auburn should hold a parade for winning the NIT, but it shouldn’t be the punchline the haters want to make it. As with anything in our realm, context is key.
It’s all about how we should frame the legacy of this moment.
Good, not great.
A light dusting of Toomer’s tushy tissue, not a blizzard.
Let’s say a solid win in what was once known as the Outback Bowl, if we still need a football equivalent.
They won’t write books about Auburn’s 2026 NIT championship. No obituaries, either.
This was a palate cleanser and an opportunity to reset, regain stability and then run toward the real goal next year.
Good work. Now do better.
And ignore the nonsense that’ll come in the wake of a 92-86 overtime beating of Tulsa on Sunday night. There will be more naysayers trying to diminish the relevance of winning the NIT.
If the celebration fits the occasion, tell them to shove it.
Don’t overdo it and the benefits will overshadow the jokes.
Let’s get a few things clear while this season settles into the archives.
First, winning these final five consecutive games proved a little something about the mental toughness of that Auburn team.
More than a few of us questioned the competitive fire as the regular season wound down. My column under the headline “Goodnight, Auburn” expressed disappointment in what we saw as Alabama clobbered the Tigers on the final Saturday of the season.
It capped a skid of eight losses in 10 games that turned a decent seed in the NCAA tournament into a team begging for a spot in Dayton.
Nothing changed much, beating hapless Mississippi State in the SEC tournament before bowing out against Tennessee.
A 17-16 record got them closer to a tournament bid than it should.
So, while others who just missed out on the party took their ball and went to spring break, Auburn did the right thing. The Tigers stayed and fought.
Accepting a bid to the little dance drew skepticism and scorn from voices in the Auburn orbit. The Tigers were one of four teams from power conferences that agreed to play in the NIT, and none of the other three made it past the second round.
Now consider what Auburn represented from the other side of the equation in this bracket.
The Tigers, though disappointed by a season that didn’t meet the preceding Final Four run, were a name brand to the band of mid-majors waiting in the 32-team NIT field.
No target was bigger than the one on a team that played in the national semifinal just a year earlier. That distinction could also make this secondary tournament feel below a program with grander plans.
Maintaining the mental edge to not blow off teams like South Alabama, Seattle and Nevada in the opening rounds wasn’t monumental. It’s also more than nothing.
The 2019 Alabama example has been mentioned a few times. The Crimson Tide found themselves on the wrong side of the bubble and settled for a top seed in the NIT.
The embarrassment of an 80-79 first-round loss to Norfolk State became the final act of the Avery Johnson experiment and a cautionary tale to the 2026 Auburn Tigers.
Well, they passed that test.
Even without KeShawn Murphy’s 10.7 points and 6.8 rebounds a game. The Mississippi State transfer was the only opt-out from a roster that could have easily fractured after the disappointing February and March.
After a slow start in the opening round win over South Alabama, it felt like Auburn was in control through most of the bracket play. The Tigers blew through the three home games before heading to Indianapolis for the semifinals.
There, an 88-66 pounding of Illinois State set up the championship meeting with Tulsa. From the crowd, it seemed the AAC school was there to prove a point.
It almost did, as Auburn’s final act was a tribute to the maddeningly inconsistent season that was. Start fast, disappear and then fight for dignity in the final moments.
There would have been something poetic if Auburn blew a 21-point lead to lose in the NIT finals just like it squandered a 14-7 record in late January.
Instead, some late-game heroics forced overtime and a six-point win.
Just recovering from the discouragement of fumbling such a big lead should be noted. That showed the kind of fight you’d like to see from a team that could’ve folded a few times.
So, a season that began with a last-second coaching change ended with a ladder, scissors and nylon.
The net clipping tied to Pearl’s backward hat wasn’t from the championship Auburn set out to win this season.
Nobody will tell their grandkids about the night Auburn beat Tulsa for the NIT.
So what.
A season that could’ve collapsed under that disappointment of late-season failure was salvaged to a degree.
Definitely more of a statement than sneaking into the NCAA tournament and losing in the first round.
Not a defining moment.
Just a good one to wash away some of the stink this season would’ve carried otherwise.
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Auburn's NIT Win Evidence They Were Snubbed From NCAA Tournament
By Dre Gaines
Auburn Daily
Following a victory in the NIT Championship, a question lingers for the Auburn Tigers in the college basketball world. Were the Tigers snubbed out of the NCAA Tournament?
Auburn had a solid showing in the NIT Tournament. Along with two double-digit wins, they only trailed by a combined eight minutes of game time in the first four games of the tournament, with the majority of that time being in Auburn’s first game against South Alabama.
“The guys on my roster are here to play basketball and compete,” Auburn head coach Steven Pearl said after accepting the NIT invitation. “I’m not going to take my ball and go home because we didn’t make the Tournament… I see it as an unbelievable opportunity for our guys to go out there and compete on a stage.”
The team seemed to have flipped a switch once they were left out of the NCAA Tournament, looking like a completely different squad. The Tigers were 7-11 overall in conference play and played arguably the hardest schedule in the entire country. A schedule that included two of the four final four teams: Michigan and Arizona.
Auburn was among the first four out teams on Selection Sunday, which also included the Oklahoma Sooners, San Diego State Aztecs and the Indiana Hoosiers. Of those four teams, Auburn and Oklahoma accepted bids for postseason play.
Of the last four teams in, Auburn beat two of them: Texas and UNC. Miami (OH) has one of the easiest schedules in the sport, and they were bounced in the first round. Texas was the only school that made it beyond the play-in game or in the first round of the tournament.
Although Steven Pearl and Auburn initially had complaints about missing the tournament, they put it behind them quickly and accepted an NIT bid. They, laced up their shoes with the goal of proving they should have been part of March Madness. Having a win in the NIT lends them a case for having been a tournament-calber team.
“Our goal was to play in the NCAA Tournament, but that didn’t happen this year,” Pearl said. “I’m of the mindset of, like, let’s just go play, let’s go hoop and, you know, have some fun with it.”
The truth is, we'll never truly know. Auburn didn’t make the tournament, and that’s that. However, the NIT Championship run made one thing clear: They can compete on the big stage, and there is a case to be made.
The Tigers controlled what they could, turning disappointment into a statement. Instead of folding, Auburn responded with a title. That what-if won’t go away, but they can use this to take some momentum into next season.
Five reasons why Auburn beat Tulsa to win its first NIT Championship:
https://auburnwire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/auburn/mens-basketball/2026/04/06/auburn-tulsa-five-stats-nit-championship-win-basketball/89479987007/
Auburn basketball sent clear edict on what would make NIT win 'worthwhile':
https://flywareagle.com/auburn-basketball-sent-clear-edict-what-would-make-nit-win-worthwhile
After everything, Auburn found the right ending:
https://www.on3.com/teams/auburn-tigers/news/after-everything-auburn-found-the-right-ending/
'They played for Auburn.' Steven Pearl praises team for NIT title win:
https://auburnwire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/auburn/mens-basketball/2026/04/06/auburn-tigers-steven-pearl-reacts-nit-championship-sec-basketball/89482804007/
Elyjah Freeman discusses future with Auburn after NIT Championship win:
https://auburnwire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/auburn/mens-basketball/2026/04/06/auburn-basketball-elyjah-freeman-return-nit-championship/89482112007/
Worries arising on Tahaad Pettiford transferring after Auburn basketball's NIT win:
https://flywareagle.com/worries-arising-tahaad-pettiford-transferring-after-auburn-basketball-nit-win
Auburn was mocked for NIT trip, now gets last laugh:
https://www.al.com/auburnbasketball/2026/04/casagrande-auburn-was-mocked-for-nit-trip-now-gets-last-laugh.html
Auburn's NIT Win Evidence They Were Snubbed From NCAA Tournament:
https://www.si.com/college/auburn/basketball/auburn-s-nit-win-made-strong-case-snubbed-march-madness
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Five reasons why Auburn beat Tulsa to win its first NIT Championship
By Phillip Jordan
Auburn Wire
The Auburn Tigers are the 2026 NIT Champions after defeating Tulsa in overtime, 92-86, on Sunday.
Auburn held a 21-point first-half lead before allowing Tulsa to make a comeback in the second half. It took a lot of effort from this team to battle back after losing the big lead. Auburn had five players in double figures scoring. The backcourt combination of Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin Overton combined for 50 of the 92 points scored for Auburn. This is a win that can help the Tigers get momentum for next season with the potential for several players to return in 2026-27.
Here are five key stats from Auburn's 92-86 overtime win versus Tulsa for the 2026 NIT Championship.
Kevin Overton
That is all that needs to be said about this win for the Tigers. Kevin Overton saved the day with the three that sent the game to overtime, but he was great for the Tigers throughout the game. He led Auburn in scoring with 26 points, and he was five of eight from three-point land in the game. He had a clutch three-pointer in overtime that put the Tigers up 89-84 that pushed them to victory.
Keyshawn Hall foul trouble
Keyshawn Hall did not have much of an impact in scoring for the Tigers due to foul trouble. Auburn was up by 12 points in the second half when Hall went out with his fourth foul. When he made it back in the game Auburn had given up the lead. He was effective in rebounding though with 12 in the game.
Three-point shooting
One of the concerns for head coach Steven Pearl coming into the NIT Championship was the ability of Tulsa to make three-point shots. Auburn held Tulsa to just 6 of 27 shooting at 23% for the game. Auburn was not great but better than Tulsa making 11 of 27 from long range at 41%.
Auburn shared the basketball
For most of the game Auburn did a good job at sharing the basketball. The Tigers had 19 assists in the game versus 12 for the Golden Hurricane. Tahaad Pettiford led the Tigers with eight in the game, and Filip Jovic was second with four. Pettiford was second on the team in scoring with 24 points.
Rebounding
Auburn won the rebounding battle in the game 39-34. Winning that part of the game became tough late in the game when Hall and Jovic both fouled out. This forced Auburn to play a smaller lineup, but as a team they were able to still control the boards. The Tigers had 13 offensive rebounds, and also had 18 second chance points in the win.
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Auburn basketball sent clear edict on what would make NIT win 'worthwhile'
By Andrew Hughes
Fly War Eagle
The Auburn Tigers won their first NIT championship on Sunday night, and in the aftermath, fans are split on whether or not to truly celebrate the win. Not making March Madness is how Steven Pearl's first season on the Plains will be defined. Still, overcoming the adversity of a torn locker room that saw KeShawn Murphy abruptly opt out of the NIT can't be ignored either.
In a piece titled "Behold, the biggest stooge in college basketball history," written about Murphy's opt-out, AL.com's Joseph Goodman claimed that the Tigers' consolation title would be "worthwhile" if Pearl can keep its core pieces.
"It wasn’t the NCAA Tournament, but hopefully the momentum it created carries over into the offseason," Goodman prefaced before saying, "If Auburn can retain some of its core pieces — namely Tahaad Pettiford, Elyjah Freeman, Kevin Overton, Sebastian Williams-Adams and Blake Muschalek — then it was all worthwhile."
Auburn's NIT was worthwhile no matter what
Auburn didn't mow down a murderer's row of opponents in the NIT. There were good teams in their path, which included the South Alabama Jaguars, Seattle Redhawks, Nevada Wolfpack, Illinois State Redbirds, and Tulsa Golden Hurricane, but a program as well-funded as AU should be beating these opponents.
With that said, after all of the whining from Bruce Pearl about his son's team not making the tournament on national television during March Madness coverage, this run was needed to show that Steven is willing to pay his dues. Steven never asked for the spotlight Bruce is giving him, but he responded after his team became a punchline across the country for those who don't appreciate high-level nepotism.
Steven earned respect from the NIT. If that respect resonates with the players who won those games on the court, it's a cherry on top. Truth be told, this NIT run was a an important display to transfers and recruits from across the country to show that Auburn isn't all bark and no bite in the post-Bruce era.
This run was already worthwhile. Only by the slimmest of margins, though, since Sunday night's title game could've been the biggest disaster had the Tigers ended up losing after blowing a 17-point halftime lead.
Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. That's fine, since Pearl and Auburn actually hit the mark and handled business and adversity well.
Oh, and as a bonus, the Tigers may have just saved the NIT for at least an extra year, since there were actual stakes to the consolation tournament this year.
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After everything, Auburn found the right ending
By Justin Hokanson
The ending of this season feels important.
Not because the NIT is what Auburn set out to win. It wasn’t. Everybody around the program knows that. The goal was to make the NCAA Tournament. The goal was to build something steady in Steven Pearl’s first season and make a real run in March.
That didn’t quite happen.
But after everything this team dealt with this year, ending the season by winning the NIT still feels like it matters.
This season was never normal from the jump. Bruce Pearl retired in September. That alone changed everything. Players like Tahaad Pettiford and Keyshawn Hall had to decide whether to remain or enter the transfer portal. They remained.
The younger Pearl had to take over a program with expectations following a Final Four season, one season removed from the greatest team in program history and a roster that was going to have to figure some things out in real time. Some nights, Auburn looked like a team that could beat just about anybody. Other nights, it looked exactly like a team going through transition.
And honestly, that’s what this whole season was.
There were ugly blowout losses early to powerhouse programs Michigan, Arizona and Purdue, that made people wonder where this thing was headed. There were also really good wins like beating St. John’s, Arkansas and Florida that reminded you the roster had enough talent to make noise. Auburn got off to a strong start in SEC play and for a while, it looked like the season might settle in the right direction.
Then it didn’t.
The finish to league play was rough. The offense stalled at times. The defensive consistency wasn’t present all season and collapsed completely late. The confidence didn’t look the same. A team that had spent months trying to prove it belonged in the NCAA Tournament ended up having to shift mentally and accept a different path following a disappointing Selection Sunday.
That’s not easy for any team. It’s especially not easy for one that had already been through as much as Auburn had. Then KeShawn Murphy didn’t show up for practice the following Monday and opted out of the postseason, adding another blow to a team that had to be reeling at that point.
And that’s why the NIT run ended up saying something about this group.
A lot of teams could have checked out. Many fans claimed the team checked out in February. A lot of teams would have treated it like leftover basketball and just gone through the motions. Auburn didn’t do that. It leaned into it at Pearl’s direction.
The Tigers treated it like a real opportunity and over the last few games, they looked like a team playing freer, sharing the ball better and finally enjoying themselves again.
Young guys like Filip Jovic, Elyjah Freeman and Sebastian Williams-Adams grew up in the process. Veterans like Kevin Overton, Pettiford and Hall kept showing up. Auburn looked more connected. More relaxed. More like a team that had stopped worrying about what the season wasn’t and started making the most of what it still could be.
True, Auburn looked like its old self again in the second half against Tulsa and nearly blew a 21-point lead. But Overton helped save the day and in overtime, the Tigers made one final push to the finish.
“I’m proud of our guys, lesser character kids, lesser character young men, would have folded it up and just gone into the offseason,” Pearl said on Sunday night. “This group didn’t.”
That’s a great way to finish it.
This team had every reason to let the season drift after missing the NCAA Tournament. Critics said Auburn should turn down the NIT bid and avoid the embarrassment. They were wrong. That much is clear now.
Instead, it regrouped and won five straight games to end it. It found a way to make the ending feel like something worth remembering.
There will be pressure on Pearl next season. The resources are there to build a competitive roster and the expectation is to make the NCAA Tournament every year. Anything short of that won’t be acceptable to Pearl or those around the program.
This season definitely didn’t go exactly how Auburn wanted. But by the end of it, these players still gave themselves something real to show for it.
The last few weeks wasn’t quite a traditional March Madness run, but it’s far from nothing, either.
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'They played for Auburn.' Steven Pearl praises team for NIT title win
By Taylor Jones
Auburn Wire
Auburn basketball turned a sour situation into positivity on Sunday by winning its first-ever NIT Championship after missing a bid to compete in the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight season.
Auburn accepted a bid to compete in the NIT after finishing with a 17-16 regular-season record, which was understandably disappointing for a program that has become a mainstay in the NCAA Tournament since 2018. However, the Tigers accepted their fate and chose to compete at a high level, which paid off with a championship. Auburn head coach Steven Pearl used his team's willingness to turn a tough situation into positivity following Sunday's 92-86 overtime win over Tulsa in Indianapolis.
“I’m incredibly grateful to these guys. They could’ve packed it up, and they didn’t. These are unbelievable young men with great character from great families. I’m incredibly honored and proud to be their coach," Pearl said Sunday. “They showed they love their university. They love Auburn, and they played for Auburn. They showed a ton of resilience. They showed what Auburn men are all about. It’s a great way to end the season.”
The momentum Auburn earned from its NIT run should carry over into next season, which could create an opportunity to return to the NCAA Tournament. Auburn rattled off five straight wins to close its campaign, with its final win testing them to their limits, as Tulsa erased a 21-point deficit to force overtime.
The next step for Auburn in its return to the NCAA Tournament is to build a winning roster. The two-week NCAA Transfer Portal window opens Tuesday, and it is expected that the futures of key players, including Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin Overton, will be decided in the coming days.
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Elyjah Freeman discusses future with Auburn after NIT Championship win
By Taylor Jones
Auburn Wire
Auburn basketball has plenty to celebrate as it just won its first NIT championship after being snubbed for an NCAA Tournament bid. However, roster building for the 2026-27 season begins now, as the NCAA Transfer Portal window for college basketball opens on Tuesday, April 7.
Auburn head coach Steven Pearl will meet with every underclassman over the next few days to discuss the season and their future with the program. While several players' futures with Auburn are unclear, one player appears ready to help Auburn return to the NCAA Tournament next season.
After Auburn's 92-86 overtime win over Tulsa on Sunday, several players were asked about their plans for next season, including guard Elyjah Freeman, who hauled in 14 rebounds for the Tigers in the NIT Championship win. According to Justin Hokanson of Auburn Rivals, Freeman had two words to say in response to a question about his status for next season.
"Locked in."
The news of Freeman's possible return is great for Auburn, as his "team-first" mentality played a role in the Tigers' deep postseason run. Freeman appeared in all 38 games, but he made just 21 starts, mostly due to his willingness to play bench minutes in exchange for freshman Sebastian Williams-Adams to receive starter minutes in several games this season, mostly in the middle of the season. In his first season on the Plains, the Lincoln Memorial transfer scored 9.2 points per game while hauling in 5.2 rebounds and recording 1.3 steals per contest.
The futures of several key players from Auburn's 2026-27 roster, including Keyshawn Hall and Keshawn Murphy, have been decided as they just completed their senior season. However, the likes of Kevin Overton, Tahaad Pettiford, Filip Jovic, and Kaden Magwood will have important decisions to make in the coming days.
The NCAA Transfer Portal window opens Tuesday, April 7, and will close on Tuesday, April 21.
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Worries arising on Tahaad Pettiford transferring after Auburn basketball's NIT win
By Andrew Hughes
Fly War Eagle
Tahaad Pettiford has many in the state of Alabama worried about his Auburn Tigers future, and whether or not he even has one, now that the 2025-26 season has officially concluded. All year, as Pettiford's production looked underwhelming relative to his role, rumbles of a potential transfer have been rattling the Auburn family's collective psyche.
The first order of business that AL.com's Jerry Humphrey believes Steven Pearl and new GM Brian Kloman have to address after the program's NIT championship win on Sunday is figuring out where/if at all, Pettiford is part of the plan.
"The million-dollar question after Auburn basketball’s NIT championship victory was what point guard Tahaad Pettiford’s future will look like with the Tigers," Humphrey wrote. Despite going through the NBA draft process after his freshman season, Pettiford returned to Auburn seeking to elevate his draft stock and make another run at the Final Four. Instead, Auburn missed the NCAA tournament after losing 16 games and settled for the NIT, defeating Tulsa 92-86 in the championship game.
"The transfer portal window will open from April 7-21. If Pettiford does decide to enter his name in the portal, he will have two years of eligibility remaining."
Auburn basketball should brace for losing Tahaad Pettiford
The team Pettiford signed up for is not the one he ended up playing for in his sophomore season. Every player should have an expectation that something like this is possible when they sign on the dotted line, but the 2024-25 Tigers' transformation into the 2025-26 was as dramatic as they come. Pettiford was the only player to return, and Bruce Pearl, the man who brought him to the Plains, handed the team off to his son to be a political pundit who sometimes talks about basketball.
Pettiford tried to recapture the magic, but the magic was gone. The Neville Arena was nowhere close to what it used to be during the late Bruce years. He helped win an NIT title, but many opposing schools can pay more and offer a product that made the NCAA Tournament.
All in all, don't be shocked if Pettiford finds a new home that's closer to winning it all immediately. Playing for Auburn put him in a spotlight that opportunistic spenders will surely take advantage of.
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Auburn was mocked for NIT trip, now gets last laugh
By Michael Casagrande
al.com
Auburn was mocked for accepting an NIT bid.
Don’t forget who made the jokes. Wasn’t me, that’s for sure.
Three weeks later, there’s a degree of satisfaction within a program that took an online beating this year.
OK, guilty there.
Not saying Auburn should hold a parade for winning the NIT, but it shouldn’t be the punchline the haters want to make it. As with anything in our realm, context is key.
It’s all about how we should frame the legacy of this moment.
Good, not great.
A light dusting of Toomer’s tushy tissue, not a blizzard.
Let’s say a solid win in what was once known as the Outback Bowl, if we still need a football equivalent.
They won’t write books about Auburn’s 2026 NIT championship. No obituaries, either.
This was a palate cleanser and an opportunity to reset, regain stability and then run toward the real goal next year.
Good work. Now do better.
And ignore the nonsense that’ll come in the wake of a 92-86 overtime beating of Tulsa on Sunday night. There will be more naysayers trying to diminish the relevance of winning the NIT.
If the celebration fits the occasion, tell them to shove it.
Don’t overdo it and the benefits will overshadow the jokes.
Let’s get a few things clear while this season settles into the archives.
First, winning these final five consecutive games proved a little something about the mental toughness of that Auburn team.
More than a few of us questioned the competitive fire as the regular season wound down. My column under the headline “Goodnight, Auburn” expressed disappointment in what we saw as Alabama clobbered the Tigers on the final Saturday of the season.
It capped a skid of eight losses in 10 games that turned a decent seed in the NCAA tournament into a team begging for a spot in Dayton.
Nothing changed much, beating hapless Mississippi State in the SEC tournament before bowing out against Tennessee.
A 17-16 record got them closer to a tournament bid than it should.
So, while others who just missed out on the party took their ball and went to spring break, Auburn did the right thing. The Tigers stayed and fought.
Accepting a bid to the little dance drew skepticism and scorn from voices in the Auburn orbit. The Tigers were one of four teams from power conferences that agreed to play in the NIT, and none of the other three made it past the second round.
Now consider what Auburn represented from the other side of the equation in this bracket.
The Tigers, though disappointed by a season that didn’t meet the preceding Final Four run, were a name brand to the band of mid-majors waiting in the 32-team NIT field.
No target was bigger than the one on a team that played in the national semifinal just a year earlier. That distinction could also make this secondary tournament feel below a program with grander plans.
Maintaining the mental edge to not blow off teams like South Alabama, Seattle and Nevada in the opening rounds wasn’t monumental. It’s also more than nothing.
The 2019 Alabama example has been mentioned a few times. The Crimson Tide found themselves on the wrong side of the bubble and settled for a top seed in the NIT.
The embarrassment of an 80-79 first-round loss to Norfolk State became the final act of the Avery Johnson experiment and a cautionary tale to the 2026 Auburn Tigers.
Well, they passed that test.
Even without KeShawn Murphy’s 10.7 points and 6.8 rebounds a game. The Mississippi State transfer was the only opt-out from a roster that could have easily fractured after the disappointing February and March.
After a slow start in the opening round win over South Alabama, it felt like Auburn was in control through most of the bracket play. The Tigers blew through the three home games before heading to Indianapolis for the semifinals.
There, an 88-66 pounding of Illinois State set up the championship meeting with Tulsa. From the crowd, it seemed the AAC school was there to prove a point.
It almost did, as Auburn’s final act was a tribute to the maddeningly inconsistent season that was. Start fast, disappear and then fight for dignity in the final moments.
There would have been something poetic if Auburn blew a 21-point lead to lose in the NIT finals just like it squandered a 14-7 record in late January.
Instead, some late-game heroics forced overtime and a six-point win.
Just recovering from the discouragement of fumbling such a big lead should be noted. That showed the kind of fight you’d like to see from a team that could’ve folded a few times.
So, a season that began with a last-second coaching change ended with a ladder, scissors and nylon.
The net clipping tied to Pearl’s backward hat wasn’t from the championship Auburn set out to win this season.
Nobody will tell their grandkids about the night Auburn beat Tulsa for the NIT.
So what.
A season that could’ve collapsed under that disappointment of late-season failure was salvaged to a degree.
Definitely more of a statement than sneaking into the NCAA tournament and losing in the first round.
Not a defining moment.
Just a good one to wash away some of the stink this season would’ve carried otherwise.
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Auburn's NIT Win Evidence They Were Snubbed From NCAA Tournament
By Dre Gaines
Auburn Daily
Following a victory in the NIT Championship, a question lingers for the Auburn Tigers in the college basketball world. Were the Tigers snubbed out of the NCAA Tournament?
Auburn had a solid showing in the NIT Tournament. Along with two double-digit wins, they only trailed by a combined eight minutes of game time in the first four games of the tournament, with the majority of that time being in Auburn’s first game against South Alabama.
“The guys on my roster are here to play basketball and compete,” Auburn head coach Steven Pearl said after accepting the NIT invitation. “I’m not going to take my ball and go home because we didn’t make the Tournament… I see it as an unbelievable opportunity for our guys to go out there and compete on a stage.”
The team seemed to have flipped a switch once they were left out of the NCAA Tournament, looking like a completely different squad. The Tigers were 7-11 overall in conference play and played arguably the hardest schedule in the entire country. A schedule that included two of the four final four teams: Michigan and Arizona.
Auburn was among the first four out teams on Selection Sunday, which also included the Oklahoma Sooners, San Diego State Aztecs and the Indiana Hoosiers. Of those four teams, Auburn and Oklahoma accepted bids for postseason play.
Of the last four teams in, Auburn beat two of them: Texas and UNC. Miami (OH) has one of the easiest schedules in the sport, and they were bounced in the first round. Texas was the only school that made it beyond the play-in game or in the first round of the tournament.
Although Steven Pearl and Auburn initially had complaints about missing the tournament, they put it behind them quickly and accepted an NIT bid. They, laced up their shoes with the goal of proving they should have been part of March Madness. Having a win in the NIT lends them a case for having been a tournament-calber team.
“Our goal was to play in the NCAA Tournament, but that didn’t happen this year,” Pearl said. “I’m of the mindset of, like, let’s just go play, let’s go hoop and, you know, have some fun with it.”
The truth is, we'll never truly know. Auburn didn’t make the tournament, and that’s that. However, the NIT Championship run made one thing clear: They can compete on the big stage, and there is a case to be made.
The Tigers controlled what they could, turning disappointment into a statement. Instead of folding, Auburn responded with a title. That what-if won’t go away, but they can use this to take some momentum into next season.
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