This is an opinion column.

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Our national celebration of college basketball is here and the state of Alabama is leading the parade with four teams. Auburn, Alabama, Troy and Alabama State are all dancing. We’ve set up an NCAA Tournament pick’em challenge for everyone to play, so join the fun. Joey Good Bagels’s bracket has Auburn and Alabama penciled in for the Final Four, but the mailbag has some doubts about the Tigers.

Jeff in Dothan writes …

In our last four games, [Auburn is] 1-3. In our first 29 games, we were 27-2. Hope I’m wrong, but these guys won’t get out of the first weekend. This bunch doesn’t have enough character to be champions. They fought all year and now they are going to waste it all.

Just like the ’98-‘99 team with Chris Porter and [Daymeon] Fishback. They lost one game all year and then blew it in the Sweet 16 and nobody remembers them.

They don’t hand out trophies for winning the regular season. Hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it. Somebody close to Bruce Pearl better whisper in his ear that he’s getting the reputation for being ‘Regular Season Bruce’ — wins lots of games and then chokes in the postseason. Of course he’s in no danger job-wise, but that Final Four run seems further and further away.

The line is “anybody can get there once with a good team that gets hot at tournament time”. If he wants to be talked about with legendary coaches he better get it done.

We won’t be nearly this talented for another three or four years. There are a lot guys on that team who are out of eligibility after this year. This is his best chance, and he’s letting it slip away. We are limping into the tournament. Total embarrassment … OK then.

Hank in Nashville writes …

Up until last year, I hadn’t thought twice about NCAA basketball, though I did enjoy the Alabama teams coached by Wimp Sanderson while I was in school there. Now I’d much rather watch basketball than football. It’s been fun seeing these teams compete this year.

Steve writes …

Tahaad Pettiford is still over-puffed to the point of lackadaisicalness. Oh how great he can be. It’s not uncool to be intense … Love these guys. Johni Broome’s grin when Bruce Pearl said the P-word (is that really cursing?) was priceless. WDE.

Rusty writes …

We heard Coach Pearl talk about the fact that Johni “can’t jump.” Is that because of his injury or has it always been that was, but it is exacerbated by his ankle injury earlier?

ANSWER: Auburn was my preseason pick to win the national championship, and I’m still backing the Tigers despite three losses in Auburn’s last four games.

Pearl was in rare form at the SEC tournament. He knows this team is capable of winning it all. It takes a supreme amount of confidence to drop the P-word on national television, and Pearl was feeling himself after that win against Ole Miss.

And, yes, using the P-word in that context is most certainly profane.

I had to give Pearl a little grief for his colorful language, but Auburn fans love him and he can do no wrong.

Auburn went out in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament against Yale, but the narrative that Pearl can’t coach in March has some holes. Pearl made history in 2019 by leading Auburn to the first-ever Final Four appearance for a team from the state of Alabama. Auburn knocked off just about every blue-blooded school along the way to Minneapolis — Kansas, North Carolina and a Kentucky team featuring Tyler Herro (Miami Heat), Keldon Johnson (San Antonio Spurs) and PJ Washington (Dallas Mavericks).

Auburn is this tournament’s No.1 overall seed for good reason. The Tigers dominated a conference that placed a record 14 teams into the NCAA Tournament. But fans with short memories will find a reason to doubt even one of the best teams in SEC history.

I get it. It’s a defense mechanism against heartbreak and disappointment, but let’s try and enjoy the ride instead of looking for reasons to criticize this team before the NCAA Tournament even begins.

Auburn’s recent losses don’t concern me one bit. Let’s consider the circumstances. Auburn dropped games to Texas A&M and Alabama after locking up the SEC regular-season championship. As for the loss to Tennessee, Auburn looked tired in the second half, but we all know that the conference tournament is no barometer for success in the Big Dance.

Auburn won the SEC tournament last year, and then crashed out against Yale in the first round of March Madness. Meanwhile, Alabama looked awful against Florida in the 2024 SEC tournament and then went on a tear to the Final Four.

If anything concerns me about this Auburn team, then it’s the injury to Johni Broome. Broome rolled his ankle on Jan.11 during a game against South Carolina, and he has been playing through some instability and soreness ever since. That he tied an Auburn record this season for double-doubles (18) despite that injury is why he should be the national player of the year.

But the ankle didn’t respond well to the quick turnaround at the SEC tournament. He was limping during warmups before the game against Tennessee.

How will the ankle respond to Auburn’s second-round matchup on Saturday (Creighton or Louisville)? It’s one of the Tournament’s biggest question marks of the first weekend.

If Auburn goes into the NCAA Tournament relying on freshman Tahaad Pettiford to win games, then something went wrong. Pettiford isn’t even a starter. Auburn is loaded down with seniors who have been waiting for an entire year for another shot at the NCAA Tournament.

Auburn needs more out of Chad Baker-Mazara in the NCAA Tournament. He lacked some of his signature edge in the SEC tournament. Can CBM elevate his game without his emotions boiling over?

This Auburn team stayed together in part to redeem itself from the disastrous ending to the 2024 campaign. The regular-season championship was great, but the redemption tour is only just beginning.

BE HEARD

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Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the book “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s Ultimate Team.”