TAMPA | No. 4 Auburn is hoping to hang around a lot longer in the next postseason tournament.

After being knocked out of the SEC Tournament in the quarterfinals, the Tigers’ next game will come Thursday or Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The SEC regular season champions are projected to be a No. 2 seed.

“Well, it's hard to win in March. You are playing against -- every team in the tournament is going to be good,” said guard Wendell Green after Friday's 67-62 loss to Texas A&M.

“Like Coach said before the game today, you have to throw the first punch, so we just got to be ready to play. This is for sure going to make us more hungry, and hopefully just take it one game at a time and go deep in the tournament.”

Auburn coach Bruce Pearl tried to have a little perspective on the early exit. AU beat the Aggies 75-58 four weeks ago, but shot just 30.4 percent from the floor at Amalie Arena Friday.

“I want them to be grateful for the opportunities,” Pearl said. “Now, can we take advantage of the opportunity we put ourselves in? A chance to be a really good seed in the NCAA tournament.

“Give A&M credit. They played inspired. They played like their hair was on fire, because they're trying to get into the NCAA tournament. We wanted win this championship. We wanted to build momentum going in, and we got beat by a really good team. But our guys are pretty humble and pretty hungry. We still are.”

Jabari Smith, the SEC Freshman of the Year, led Auburn with 17 points against TAMU but shot just 5 of 16 from the floor. He’s confident Auburn can shoot better and make a run in the Big Dance.

“I would say just keep defending. Yeah, like he said, hit open shots. Keep shooting it. Keep having confidence and keep passing to the open man. We know eventually they'll start falling,” Smith said.