The Auburn Tigers have not made a run past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 2019. While each iteration of Bruce Pearl's Tigers have been plagued by a specific set of issues resulting in those early exists, one overarching trope has trumped them all. At the end of the day, guard play is what leads to victories in the month of March.
For the first four months of the 2024-2025 campaign, Auburn's guard play was among the best in the nation. Over the last four games, it has been below-average. Tahaad Pettiford, Miles Kelly, Denver Jones, and Chad Baker-Mazara combined for just 10 field goals on Saturday, a mark that was 2 ticks lower than the amount of fouls the quartet commited.