Auburn is now a basketball school: Ticket lotteries, campouts and $1 million donations

The No. 1 Auburn Tigers are chasing their first national basketball championship.

Bruce Pearl's team had finished with a sub-.500 record in 12 of the previous 15 seasons .

Before Pearl arrived in 2014 , the Tigers had finished 12 of their 15 seasons with sub-500 records.

The school's fan base is so serious that the student section has an entire cabinet, including a president and vice president.

Auburn's former athletic director presented Pearl with a three-year NCAA show cause.

The NCAA had threatened to fine any school that hired Pearl within that period.

Auburn reached the NCAA tournament in his first three seasons with the Tigers .

He was suspended for failing to monitor former assistant Chuck Person for his role in a bribery scandal.

A year later , he helped Auburn make a run to the 2019 Final Four .

Auburn is one of the nation's most balanced teams with a 10 -man rotation that ranks first in adjusted offensive efficiency and 10th in adjusted defensive efficiency.