Jared Harper and Chuma Okeke slapped a basketball out of each other's hands. Samir Doughty took a peak at the Gonzaga post-game meal setup, perhaps examining what his future dinner might look like after a run-of-the-mill NCAA Tournament game against Kansas. Horace Spencer and Harper laughed at a Doughty quip made to an unknowing passerby.

Malik Dunbar prepped the chorus to his "Let's get it, let's get this dub, babay!" melody he sings before every game. It's become a team tradition of sorts, something Dunbar came up with during the first pregame of the season. Dunbar sings, everyone else joins in, a team readying battle dances in unison — they're having fun.

"That's just us," Dunbar smiled. "We just like to go out there and have fun. We like to get loose before the game. Feel good, play good."

It's a team-wide mentality of fun and confidence.

Harper remembers the last time it felt like they weren't having fun. They almost always do, so he rarely forgets the moments they aren't. Believe it or not, it took place during the team's 10-game winning streak, in Nashville amid the program's first SEC Tournament championship run since 1985.

Auburn went into halftime of the Florida game, and Harper — always one to make or take a joke from a teammate — realized the Tigers weren't acting like themselves.

He made a point to bring it up in the halftime locker: Let's return to having some fun. We're better that way.

"I try to preach to my team to always have fun in every single game we play. I don’t think we were having fun in the first half of the Florida game. I don’t think we were having fun," Harper said. "I came into the locker room and said, ‘When we’re having fun, we’re winning.’ We came back out on the court in the second half, had fun, and we’ve been having fun ever since."

That ability to have fun in the most pressure-filled moments has translated into unquestioned confidence.

Anfernee McLemore refers to Auburn as the "hottest team in college basketball." A disagreeing argument isn't a strong one. Brow says he'd take his "guys over anyone else's." That includes North Carolina and Kentucky and Duke and anyone else Auburn may play along the way who's viewed as a roster with superior talent.

"I know my players. I know the talent level. I know my coaches," Brown said. "The talent level on this team is so underrated. People across the country have yet to realize it."

Auburn is doing its part to, as Brown puts it, put the country on notice.

The Tigers knew they were the better team against the Jayhawks last week. They played like it. Auburn knows North Carolina is seen as a bigger, more talented version of itself. The Tigers don't care. They're going to play their way, and they think they can do it better than just about anyone in college basketball.

It's a fun-having, staying-confident college basketball team. They don't know Auburn basketball isn't supposed to win, or at the least, it hasn't done much winning in the past. And if they do know, they certainly don't care.

"We’re going to play with confidence each and every night because we put the work in to be confident. We’re capable of beating anybody in the country," Doughty said. "A lot of people thought we was going to lose [to Kansas]. Even a lot of people that I know thought it was a joke we thought we could beat Kansas. But we knew if we make shots and turn people over, we’re a hard team to beat. Right now, we’re undefeated in March, so we’re definitely going to be confident as a group."