Auburn men’s basketball enters the Final Four under a unique set of circumstances.

The Tigers have faced all three of the other teams left in the field, becoming just the second team ever to do so in a Final Four. Auburn went 1-2 in those games, beating Houston but losing to Duke and Florida.

Auburn’s loss to Duke was the Tigers’ first of the season and helped springboard the Blue Devils’ dominant run the rest of the year.

Duke is 29-1 since beating Auburn on Dec. 4 and is now the No. 1 team in KenPom’s efficiency ratings by a relatively large margin.

“It definitely boosted us going deep into the season,” said Duke guard Isaiah Evans.

Evans was one of the breakout stars in that game for Duke too. After not featuring in many of Duke’s big games prior to the Auburn matchup, Evans exploded for 18 points, knocking down six 3-pointers.

Since then, Evans has been a consistent contributor for Duke, helping the Blue Devils rank eighth in the country in 3-point percentage.

“It boosted it a lot,” Evans said when asked what that game did for his confidence. “Just staying in the gym and when my number was called, I was ready.”

Evans’ performance was also the first thing that jumped out to Duke’s Mason Gillis and Caleb Foster when they were asked what they remembered most about facing Auburn.

Foster added that the win gave Duke confidence, especially after losing high-profile non-conference games earlier in the season. Auburn was the No. 2 team in the country at the time, coming off winning the Maui Invitational. Foster said after beating Auburn, “it gave us confidence that we could really beat anybody in the country.”

For Duke freshman center Khaman Maluach, it was an early test against arguably the best frontcourt player in college basketball. He only played 15 minutes in the game, but spent time matched up against Johni Broome.

“I would say we had the confidence since the beginning of the season,” Maluach said. “We were still learning about ourself and we were still learning to play with each other by that time.”

Duke won the game 84-78, but both teams broke off long winning streaks following that game. For the Blue Devils, it was the second victory of a 16-game winning streak eventually snapped by Clemson.

For Auburn, it won its next 14 games in a row, not losing until Florida came to Neville Arena on Feb. 8. It led to the teams entering the NCAA tournament as the top two overall seeds.

Now in the Final Four, Duke and Auburn have a chance to face off again if both teams win on Saturday. Auburn’s Final Four game against Florida is scheduled for 5:09 p.m. Saturday and will be televised on CBS.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m