The end was hard for Auburn's Danjel Purifoy.

It was, in many ways, a fitting way for this Auburn basketball season to end. A 10-point lead gets away in the final 5:04. A wide-open 3-point shot at the buzzer wins it for last-place Missouri, playing with great fervor for its fired coach.

There will be no NIT. Maybe Auburn will play in the CBI and maybe not, but for all intents and purposes, the season ended Wednesday night in Nashville with an 86-83 overtime victory in the first round of the SEC Tournament.

It’s one of those games that you watch and really almost can’t believe what you just saw. But we saw more of those this season, some more unbelievable than that one.

It was a strange season in so many ways. Not so long ago, after a win on the road at Alabama to sweep that season series, people were talking about Auburn being on the NCAA Tournament bubble. Then there was a blown 23-point second-half lead at Ole Miss. Everything seemed different after that.

In spurts, Bruce Pearl’s third Auburn team looked like a juggernaut – all but unstoppable on offense, quick and athletic. And then, just like that, it would look like something different altogether.

The Tigers won 18 games, more than in any season since 2009. There was undeniable talent on the floor – albeit still in diapers. But it had to be hard on Wednesday for anybody connected with Auburn basketball to feel good about anything.

The frustration will fade, but the real question now is how this team, which will no longer be so young next season, responds. Will they learn the hard lessons of the ones that got away? Will they play more consistent defense? Will they move the ball on offense and stop taking so many quick and often long shots?

Really talented guys like Mustapha Heron, Austin Wiley, Danjel Purifoy, Bryce Brown, Anfernee McLemore, Jared Harper and Horace Spencer will be back. Another glittering recruiting class will join them.

They need to get stronger and more physical, which they will do. The need to get more consistent about everything they do on both ends of the floor, which they must do if there is to finally be an Auburn basketball breakthrough.

All that is for the future. The present truth is that there is no way to put a happy face on what happened Wednesday night.

It was a downer of a night for Auburn basketball.