by Auburn basketball crashed into the NCAA Tournament by earning its 20th win of the season on the final day of regular season play, and its reward will be playing in one of the most interesting first-round matchups.
No. 9 seed Auburn will meet No. 8 seed Iowa in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday night at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Playing in the 8-9 game is usually intriguing in and of itself, but CBS’s David Cobb feels there’s another factor that will draw viewers in.
Cobb ranked all of the NCAA Tournament opening round matchups and moved Auburn-Iowa to third on the list, trailing only Arkansas-Illinois and Texas A&M-Penn State as the best first round matchups. He says the Auburn guards, as well as the coaches’ matchup, need to provide quality entertainment for college basketball fans.
If you like watching trainers act like kids, you’ll love this one. We’ll set the plus/minus of the coach’s techniques at a cautious 1.5 and won’t be surprised if Auburn’s Bruce Pearl or Iowa’s Fran McCaffery get ejected for their antics. The Hawkeyes are a fun offensive team led by a potential first-round NBA Draft pick in Kris Murray, and the Auburn back of Wendell Green and KD Johnson is constant chaos.
The chaos of the matchup between No. 8 Iowa and No. 9 Auburn will begin at 5:45 pm CT on Thursday night on TNT.
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The story originally appeared on the Auburn Wire
