AUBURN — Auburn basketball was announced as a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, and the Tigers will play No. 13 Yale in the Round of 64.
Coach Bruce Pearl is content with that. What bothers him is the fact that his team has to play the Bulldogs in Spokane, Washington: “I would like for it to be better, but I’m OK with our seeding,” Pearl said Tuesday. “Could be better but I’m OK with it. I’ve talked about it before, I’ll talk about it again: Very excited about going to Spokane. Beautiful city. Very excited about going to Gonzaga and seeing that campus. But I’d prefer to go there fishing and go hang out with (Gonzaga coach) Mark Few.
“I just think about our fans, and I think about our players’ parents. And I think about the families that are trying to get out there. The pod system was created so that you didn’t have to do this, you know? So, that’s my only complaint. We’re leaving on Tuesday to play a game on Friday in another time zone. … We have to leave early afternoon, so we have to miss class. … If we’re blessed to win, if we’re lucky enough to win, we don’t leave (Spokane) until Monday. Where should we go Monday? Come back to Auburn?”
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If the Tigers handle Yale on Friday (3:15 p.m. CT, TNT), they’d move on to play either No. 5 San Diego State or No. 13 UAB. Auburn would then play in the Sweet 16 in Boston if it can survive the first couple of rounds.
Pearl offered a solution for what he perceives as an issue.
“Rather than just complaining about things, my advice would be to do a study of where the teams are in the country are that are making the tournament,” Pearl said. “And if there’s a preponderance of teams that are making the tournament in the Southern part of the country that are making the tournament, or the West or the Northeast, then have more regions, have more pods in those locations.”
Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn’s Bruce Pearl discusses location solutions for NCAA Tournament
