Auburn Basketball: Tigers win outright 2021-22 SEC regular season title

After claiming at-least a share of the 2021-22 SEC regular season title with an 81-68 road win at Mississippi State on Wednesday night, Auburn Basketball entered Saturday’s regular season finale against South Carolina simply needing a win to claim the conferences regular season title outright.

Playing at home where the Tigers had yet to lose this season, this was a favorable matchup for Auburn against the Gamecocks, an opponent they had previously defeated 81-66 back in early-January in Columbia. As you can likely tell by the title as well, the Tigers would care of business on Saturday winning 82-71, claiming the outright 2021-22 SEC regular season title.

Auburn Basketball wins the outright 2021-22 SEC regular season title

Clinching the school’s first undefeated season at home since the 1998-99 season, Auburn never trailed against the Gamecocks on Saturday, even carrying a 19-point advantage into halftime. Shooting 10-for-23 from three-point range, the Tigers also had four players in double-figures led by star freshman Jabari Smith with 21 points.

Finishing the regular season at 27-4 (15-3 in SEC), Auburn held a slim one-game lead over Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee entering the day, and will now head into next week’s SEC Tournament in Tampa as the conference’s No. 1 seed.

In addition to this, Auburn Basketball also entered the day ranked as the No. 5 team in the AP Poll, as well as the final of four projected No. 1 seeds for the NCAA Tournament according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. While the potential one-seed for the Tigers could depend on how they perform in Tampa next week, it seems that the regular season SEC champions have a strong chance to grab a seed on the one-line with a resume that already includes eight Quad 1 wins.

With the SEC Tournament bracket finalized later today, Auburn Basketball will now enter next week as one of four double-byes, and will face the winner of the 8/9 matchup on Friday morning.