SALT LAKE CITY — Auburn enters the NCAA Tournament as one of the hottest teams in the country.

The Tigers have saved their best basketball for the right time, riding an eight-game winning streak and SEC Tournament championship into the Big Dance. Since leaving Nashville on Sunday, Auburn has had an off day Monday, flew to Salt Lake City on Tuesday and got back to a regular schedule Wednesday with the New Mexico State matchup a day away.

It would've been easy for Auburn to revel in the SEC championship. But this team, typically, doesn't operate like that.

"We honestly forgot about that the day we got back to Auburn," Samir Doughty said.

An SEC Tournament title was a team goal. Key word: was.

Now that the team has claimed that objective, new goals stand before the Tigers. Auburn wants to take care of its first-round opponent New Mexico State, of course. It has similar hopes to handle its second-round opponent, whether that's No. 4 Kansas or No. 13 Northeastern.

But Auburn's self-expectations go much further than that.

"Everybody is just thinking about a national championship. That’s all we’re preparing for," Doughty said. "We’re happy we got the win in the SEC Tournament, but that’s in the past right now. We’re only focused on the national championship."

To do so, Auburn players admit they will draw on last year's experiences.

The Tigers stumbled into the NCAA Tournament with a few injuries and a stagnant SEC Tournament effort. That sluggish basketball didn't change much once the big tournament arrived. Auburn clawed its way to a narrow in over 13-seed College of Charleston. It was then dismantled by Clemson to send Auburn to a second-round exit.

Best believe this: The Tigers don't forget that.

"They whipped us with a belt last year. We’re still mad about that loss last year. But we’re going to use it to make us better this year," Malik Dunbar said. "The last game we lost against Clemson, we had a couple selfish plays that I think broke us down a lot. We won’t have that problem this year. We’re going to play together. We’re going to win together. We don’t care who’s scoring."

Auburn has used the "Unfinished Business" mantra all season as motivation.

It helped the Tigers through their midseason conference struggles. It was the identity for the SEC Tournament run that began a little less than a week ago. Ultimately, as Bryce Brown puts it, the early NCAA Tournament departure is the most prominent business Auburn felt was left unfinished.

"Every loss isn’t a loss. It’s a lesson," Brown said. "For us seniors, we don’t want to go out like that again. That’s part of the unfinished business we have. We want to come into this tournament and make more of a statement and make more of an impact and let them know we aren’t a fluke."