The Auburn Tigers are one of the favorites to win the 2025 NCAA tournament, with an explosive offense and one of the best coaches in men’s college basketball history.
Auburn’s won at least 27 games in three of the last four seasons but doesn’t have much success in the NCAA tournament thus far.
The Tigers were upset in the first round last season by No. 13 Yale, knocked out in the second round by Houston in 2023, upset by No. 10 Miami in 2022 and missed the tournament entirely in 2021.
The pressure is mounting at Auburn for the winningest head coach in program history, Bruce Pearl, to finally win the big one.
While it remains to be seen if the Tigers can cut down the nets in 2025, it’s worth taking a look back at the last time Auburn made a deep NCAA tournament run.
When Did the Auburn Tigers Last Win the NCAA Tournament?
Unfortunately for the Tigers, they’ve never been able to cut down the nets. The program has made just one Final Four in its history—which is the moment we’re revisiting today.
The 2018–19 Tigers finished 30–10 and ended up suffering a devastating loss to Virginia in the final seconds of a Final Four clash.
But it isn’t right to start there. Let’s rewind back to the beginning of the season.
The preseason SEC media poll had the Tigers slated to finish third in the 14-team league, so the expectations were certainly high in Auburn.
Auburn Tigers 2018–19 Roster
Auburn jumped to a 13–3 start, with highlight wins over No. 25 Washington and Arizona. Not to mention, one of the team’s losses was to No. 1 Duke.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, mid-January brought some hardships. Auburn lost three-straight games, all to SEC opponents before closing out February with a 19–9 record. A three-game March winning streak, capped off with a huge win over No. 5 Tennessee, gave the Tigers some momentum heading into the SEC tournament.
There, Auburn won four games in four days. The Tigers defeated Missouri, South Carolina, Florida and No. 8 Tennessee in a rematch from the regular-season finale.
The Tigers received an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, being awarded a No. 5 seed. Despite No. 12 New Mexico State being a trendy upset pick, the Tigers took care of business, albeit barely.
Auburn led by 12 with about seven minutes remaining before New Mexico State eventually cut the lead down to one on a deep three-pointer from Trevelin Queen with just 29 seconds on the clock.
After some back-and-forth action, the Aggies once again cut the lead to one with just eight seconds remaining. Eventually, the game ended when the Aggies missed two of three free throws, got the offensive rebound but missed the putback.
Sigh of relief. Pearl said it was better to be lucky than good.
But for the rest of the way, the Tigers wouldn’t need much luck.
Auburn blew out No. 4 Kansas in the second round before blowing out No. 1 North Carolina in the Sweet 16. In the Elite Eight, Auburn matched up with a familiar foe: No. 2 Kentucky.
The Wildcats had defeated the Tigers in both regular season matchups and were favored to win again, especially when Auburn lost star forward Chuma Okeke to a torn ACL in the final minutes against North Carolina.
The Tigers battled back from a modest five-point deficit at the half to force overtime. From there, they never lost control, knocking off the Wildcats 77–71.
For the first time in the history of Auburn basketball, the Tigers were in the Final Four.
Unfortunately for Auburn, that’s where the run would end.
Squaring off against No. 1 Virginia, the Tigers were up by four points with 9.4 seconds left in the game. It seemed like it was over and that Auburn would be marching on the national championship game.
Even the PA announcer inside the arena was announcing the final score. It was a done deal.
Until it wasn’t.
With 0.6 seconds on the clock, Virginia guard Kyle Guy took a corner three-pointer. The Cavaliers trailed by two. This was the game. Auburn guard Samir Doughty closed out on Guy and was called for a shooting foul.
Three free throws and three makes later, Auburn’s win probability went from 93% to 2.4% in the final half-second of the game.
It was a brutal loss for the Tigers, but an incredible run nonetheless.
Can Auburn Win the National Championship in 2025?
Auburn is as legit as they come heading into the 2025 NCAA tournament. The Tigers were the best team in a stacked SEC that features eight teams ranked in the Top 25 as of Week 18.
On BetMGM, the Tigers are currently +325 to win the national championship. Those are the best odds of any team in the nation.
Auburn is led by National Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome, who is averaging 18.4 points and 10.8 rebounds per night. Five other Tigers average at least 10 points per game and the team has the top five offense in the country.
We’ll have to wait and see if Pearl can lead the Tigers to the program’s first championship. But right now, everything looks great for Auburn.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as When Is the Last Time the Auburn Tigers Made the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament?.
