Bruce Pearl sarcastically implied that he’s pumped for tomorrow’s Selection Sunday to see where Auburn basketball will be seeded in the NCAA tournament.

After dropping three of its last four games to Alabama, Texas A&M and Tennessee. Pearl knows what’s now at stake for his group heading into the NCAA Tournament

“Let’s get to Sunday, find out where we’re going, find out who we’re playing and let’s get back to work. I’m looking forward, not back,” Pearl said postgame.

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi said the Tigers will still be a No. 1 seed regardless of the outcome in the SEC tournament.

With the Tigers falling short in the conference semifinals to Tennessee, Pearl talked about the importance this tournament had on Sunday’s decision.

“Yeah, it means a lot to us. In other words, to me, this is one of the things I’ve talked to the team about, if you’re the No. 1 overall seed, then basically you had the best regular season from November all the way to March. We’d love to be able to hold onto that. We’ll find out Sunday,” Pearl said.

“I believe that this team has from start to finish done enough to be the No. 1 overall seed in this tournament. Our résumé is historically one of the strongest résumés in the history of college basketball with the number of Quad I wins we’ve had.”

In Lunardi’s latest bracket prediction, he has Auburn in the south region facing either Iona or St. Francis (PA), who he projects to play in the First Four.

The Tigers first and second round games are projected to be at Rupp Arena in Lexington. Selection Sunday is scheduled to go live tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. on ESPN.

Jerry Humphrey III covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Jerryhump3 or email him at [email protected].