Auburn's Pearl 'Not Going to Let Michigan State Play the Underdog Card' in Elite Eight

Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl isn't buying into Big Ten regular season champion Michigan State as an underdog in Sunday's 2025 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight matchup.

"We're a team made up of only one five-star. One of the things I reminded my guys of: there were several guys on this Michigan State roster that were McDonald's All-Americans," Pearl said at the 21:30 mark of Saturday's press conference. "I had one, and that was Tahaad Pettiford. He's pretty good. Most of our guys are guys that were mid-majors, or junior college, or Division II.

"So, I'm not going to let Michigan State play the underdog card, even though we're No. 1 seed, and they're No. 2 seed. No. They're Michigan State. They're Kansas, they're Duke, they're North Carolina. We're Auburn. We know our place."

Pearl later said that he considered Auburn to be the underdog in the upcoming matchup.

"This is the third time in our history we've gone to the Elite Eight," Pearl said. "This is uncharted water for us. We're talking about Michigan State, we're talking about Tom Izzo."

Izzo, like Pearl, last took his team to the second weekend in 2019, when both Auburn and Michigan State made it to the Final Four before Virginia won it all.

"I don't know. What's an underdog? You get to this point, and there are no underdogs," Izzo said in his Saturday response to Pearl's comments. "If he wants to make us a favorite, I'm cool with that. If he wants to make us an underdog, I've been in that role before too.

"I think that's the advantage of being where I've been. We've been a one seed and got to the Final Four, we've been a seven seed and got to the Final Four. So, I don't know if the seed matters. I don't know if the underdog matters. I think the players matter."

Pearl's comments come after his top-seeded team found themselves trailing Michigan by as many as nine points with just over 12 minutes left in the second half of their Sweet 16 matchup.

Pettiford and Denver Jones responded with late-game scoring outbursts to help Auburn climb back out to a 78-65 win.

Michigan State similarly had to launch a late rally to make it out of the Sweet 16, during which the team trailed Ole Miss with five minutes remaining. The comeback marked the 14th time Izzo's Spartans have won an NCAA Tournament game after trailing at the half, tying Mike Krzyzewski's all-time record, per MLive's Matt Wenzel.

No. 1 Auburn and No. 2 Michigan State will meet with a trip to San Antonio on the line Sunday at 5:05 p.m. ET.