AUBURN, Ala. (WHNT) – The Auburn Tigers are headed to March Madness again in 2023, this time as the No. 9 seed in the Midwest region.

The Tigers exited the SEC tournament early with a loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks Friday, but did enough in the regular season to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Auburn will look to redeem itself after that SEC tournament loss in the Midwest region, and will begin its journey in the tournament with a game against No. 8 seed Iowa in Birmingham on Thursday, March 16.

This tournament will be the Tigers’ fourth under head coach Bruce Pearl since 2018. In 2019, AU made it all the way to the final four, falling to no. 1 seed Virginia by one point.

Auburn, currently ranked no. 29 in the NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool), ended the regular season with a 20-11 record, which included a five-game win streak and the end of a nearly two-year long home game winning streak for the Tigers, the longest active streak at the time.

Auburn’s resume includes three quadrant one wins. One of those big wins for AU came against Northwestern in November during the Cancún Challenge. The team went on to beat a no. 13 Arkansas at home by 13 points and hold them to 12.5% shooting from the three-point line.

The Tigers beat a 12th-ranked Tennessee on the road 79-70 to end the season on a high note.

Auburn also took care of business outside of quad 1 games, going 17-2. But, the team dropped 10 of 13 quad 1 games, outside of the resume building wins mentioned above.

A loss to Georgia in January did spark AU’s five-game winning streak in conference play. But losses to Vanderbilt, a 32-point loss to Kentucky, and a 16-point loss at home to Texas A&M hurt the Tiger’s chances at a higher seed.

You can catch No. 9 seed Auburn facing No. 8 Iowa in Birmingham on Thursday to open the NCAA Tournament.