Auburn for the second straight week will have a shot at the No. 1 ranking, and after the Tigers lost out to Gonzaga last week, a win over No. 12 Kentucky on Saturday will boost the chances this time.

But can the Tigers win it all in the NCAA Tournament? During his regular appearance on WJOX and the “McElroy and Cubelic In the morning” show, ESPN commentator Paul Finebaum offered his thoughts.

“Auburn can definitely win a national championship,” Finebaum said. “I think we’ve seen that for the last 2 months. It’s not like this is Week 1 of the SEC and they just gone on the road and won a big game. They haven’t lost since, what, November or December I can’t remember. They’re playing at a high level, and I will say this Greg: At the end of January, there are always a lot more teams capable of winning than when we see the bracket in mid-March. But anyone who doesn’t think this is the best team in the country, and that goes for the writer out in Kansas City, who was clueless and quite frankly, and it’s really disgraceful to his profession to intentionally mark a team down, simply has to get with the program.”

Finebaum then put it simply ahead of Monday’s reveal of the AP Top 25 poll.

“As we stand, Auburn’s the best team in the country,” he said. “They project No. 1 in all the bracketology and if they aren’t the No. 1 team in the country when the polls comes out today, it will be even more shameful than it was last week when it was pretty shameful.”