Auburn (20-12, 10-9) left Nashville Friday morning for the Plains less than 24 hours after Thursday’s 76-73 loss in the second round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament against Arkansas.

Tigers’ head coach Bruce Pearl said the team would practice at Neville Arena on Saturday. They’ll gather on Sunday to watch the NCAA Selection Show to find out where their next game will happen.

Losing a game after Allen Flanigan’s jumper gave the Tigers a one-point lead with less than a minute left was tough blow for team that’s lost seven games by five points or less. Feelings of disappointment were palatable in the Tigers’ locker room after the contest.

Read More Auburn Basketball: Bruce Pearl feels ‘so badly’ for Auburn fans

Observations from Auburn’s loss

Joseph Goodman: Blood and guts take Auburn to the edge

“We had a chance to win that game, but we didn’t make enough plays,” Auburn forward Johni Broome said. “We got outhustled on the boards. We missed free throws. I missed five myself. We can’t do that.”

Pearl did his best to reframe the situation by reminding the team of the high probability of the team making the NCAA Tournament.

“Sort of set the table for them a little bit and tell them, Look, there are 260-something teams that are done and aren’t playing in this tournament. Auburn is one of the teams that’s playing for a national championship.”

Joe Lunardi of ESPN projects Auburn as a 10 seed after the close loss. Lunardi has the Tigers traveling to Denver for a game against projected seven-seed Michigan State. Auburn would be in the East bracket based on Lunardi’s picks.

CBS Sports basketball reporter Jerry Palm has the Tigers in the West bracket as an 8th seed with a matchup against 9-seed Iowa. The good news about this bracket is he has the Tigers playing in Birmingham for their first-round game.

Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News does a bracket predictor for Fox Sports. He has Auburn as a 10-seed in the South Regional facing Creighton in a seven vs 10 matchup in the opening round.

Several sites delve into Bracketology, with Auburn projected as high as seven and low as 11, depending on the outlet. It’s not a secret that Auburn would rather end up in Birmingham for the opening weekend. However, they end up either as far west as Sacramento or north as Albany, New York.

We talked to the guys about where we’d be potentially seeded, what it would look like,” Pearl said. “Talked about what are you going to do tonight and tomorrow, traveling back… Talked about we were going to be somewhere between 8, 9, or 10 would be my guess. What the first game would look like, what the second game could potentially look like against the one and the two.”

Nubyjas Wilborn covers Auburn for Alabama Media Group