The Auburn Tigers' opening game of the NCAA Tournament against 16-seed Alabama State provided some cause for concern, as the top overall seed was pushed for one half by their clearly inferior in-state opponent, but on Saturday night, in a game against an opponent who had every reason to believe they could hang with the Tigers, Auburn responded accordingly and once again proved why they were worthy of their seed and the distinction as one of the betting favorites to eventually cut down the nets in San Antonio.

By the final score of 82-70, Auburn took care of business against a game Creighton Bluejays team that took a two-point lead into the halftime locker room. With the win, head coach Bruce Pearl advanced to the Sweet Sixteen for the sixth time in his coaching career, but after the game, the 65-year-old head coach made sure to give all of the credit to his players.

“I get asked a lot how this basketball program has become so competitive over the last eight years. Well, you’re looking at the reasons right here,” Pearl said at the beginning of his post-game press conference, per Justin Hokanson of On3 Sports. “Very proud of my team. We played Auburn basketball. We played like the number one team in the country. We acted like the number-one team in the country. We prepared like the number one team in the country.”

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Specifically, Pearl shouted out Denver Jones (“I’ve been telling everybody he is one of the best defensive guards in all of college basketball and he proved it tonight,”), Tahaad Pettiford (“Seniors on this team trust him. So does his coach,”) and Johni Broome (“You continue to see night after night why he’s the National College Player of the Year.”)

Prior to Pearl's arrival, the Auburn basketball program had been to the NCAA Tournament only eight times, but in his 11 seasons on the bench, the Tigers have already made six trips to the Big Dance and made their first ever Final Four appearance back in 2019. To make the Elite Eight for the third time in program history, Auburn will need to defeat the 5-seed Michigan Wolverines in a Sweet Sixteen matchup next Friday night.