This Auburn team — the deepest and maybe the most energetic, fun bunch to come through in head coach Bruce Pearl’s tenure — will forever be commemorated with this year printed on banners hanging from the Neville Arena rafters.

For the third time in program history, Auburn men’s basketball has won the SEC Tournament championship.

Auburn beat Florida in Sunday’s championship game of the 2024 tournament, 86-67, surviving a run through an upset-driven tournament to the trophy. Auburn received a top-four seed and a double-bye to the quarterfinals where it blew out No. 5 seed South Carolina 86-55 on Friday.

Auburn was the only higher seed to advance out of Friday. No. 1 seed Tennessee, No. 2 Kentucky and No. 3 Alabama all lost their tournament opening games. It became the presumptive favorite as the clear top seed remaining in the field after the carnage.

But Auburn was pushed far more against No. 9 seed Mississippi State on Saturday. All of Auburn’s first 25 wins had come by double-digits. But the 26th win, beating Mississippi State 73-66, was Auburn’s first win in a close game this season. It has lost several games by single digits. Until Saturday, it hadn’t managed to win one.

It put Auburn back in SEC championship for the first time since 2019. And it was a title game against Pearl’s coaching mentee in Todd Golden and a Florida team that beat Auburn 81-65 in Gainesville during the season’s only previous matchup. It was the biggest thrashing Auburn took all season.

The Tigers got their revenge in the biggest game of the season thus far. A game that ended in a shower of confetti.

Auburn has been very much boom-or-bust in this tournament under Burce Pearl. Auburn hadn’t won a game in the SEC Tournament at all since the championship game in 2019.

And in the first year it has won a game since, Auburn went all the way to the trophy again.

Auburn now has won the SEC Tournament title in 2024, 2019 and 1985. It’s Auburn basketball’s eighth overall SEC title. Auburn has five SEC regular season championships in 1928, 1960, 1999, 2018 and 2022.

It’s the fourth overall SEC title under Pearl — two regular season and two conference tournament championships.

Going back to Auburn’s 2018 SEC regular season title, Auburn or Alabama has won either the regular season or tournament championship every year except 2020 where there was no tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Auburn will now await its selection into the 2024 NCAA Tournament, where it is likely to be either a No. 3 or No. 4 seed.

Matt Cohen covers sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]