But what followed was the worst stretch of Auburn’s season. It lost three straight and six of its final eight overall, culminating with an overtime SEC Tournament loss to Missouri in which it led by 10 with 4:06 left and six with 26 seconds left.

The Tigers’ 7-11 record in SEC play was its best in seven years, but five of those wins came against the bottom three in the league standings — Mississippi State, LSU and Missouri — and it still left Auburn 11th in the conference.

“One of our expectations this year, one of our goals, was to go to postseason. At this level, postseason means the NCAA Tournament or NIT,” Pearl said when he announced that Auburn would not accept a CBI bid. “We’ve not done enough work to get into the NIT.”

And even though they didn’t this season, the expectations for next year’s Tigers will be even higher. This year, Pearl said the goal was simply to reach the postseason in some form. Next year, it will be to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003.

“I think it’s just keeping it 100,” Pearl said.