Auburn's SEC tournament loss should end NCAA tournament hopes

The Auburn Tigers entered Thursday as one of the most polarizing teams on the NCAA tournament bubble, badly needing a win against Tennessee in the SEC tournament to keep their hopes going for another day. They did not get it, dropping a 72-62 decision.

With that, any NCAA tournament hopes that were still lingering for the Tigers should be completely squashed. 

Auburn can not seriously be considered an at-large tournament team

There are a couple of factors that have made Auburn such a compelling bubble team. They have played an extremely tough schedule, have great metrics, including a top-40 NET ranking, and have scored some absolutely massive wins, including three against AP top-25 teams. 

They also have four Quad 1 wins, three Quad 2 wins and four Quad 3 wins. Overall, they were 7-3 against Quad 2 and Quad 3 opponents.

If you just look at those factors on the surface, it looks like a strong resume. Perhaps even a tournament-worthy resume when it comes to beating good teams and playing a tough schedule. 

The problem is that for all of the impressive wins Auburn has put together throughout the season, it is still only 17-16 after Thursday's loss to Tennessee and finished in 12th place in the SEC standings. That is simply too many losses. There are too many teams ahead of them. There are too many teams that simply did not lose that many basketball games over the course of the season. 

While big wins matter, not losing games also matters. Quite a bit. 

Historically speaking, there is no precedent for a team with that many losses to get an at-large bid. 

Since the tournament expanded to at least 64 teams, no team has ever earned an at-large bid with more than 14 losses in a season. The 1990-91 Villanova Wildcats received an at-large bid with 14 losses. 

It would be a stunning change for the selection committee to go that far this season. It should not even consider it.