Bruce Pearl’s Auburn Tigers enter the Final Four as arguably the hottest team. Still, they are probably the fourth-ranked team in the Final Four.

UVA, Michigan State and Texas Tech would all likely be power ranked ahead of Auburn by the masses, but that’s perfectly fine for Pearl’s team.

Think about it: Auburn has beaten No. 4 Kansas, No. 1 North Carolina and No. 2 Kentucky in the last three games. That’s three powerhouse programs in nine days.

Pearl joined The Dan Patrick Show Monday to discuss his team and the Final Four. He explained to Patrick when he knew his team had a chance to be special.

“Probably when we won four in Nashville (SEC Tournament) to cut the nets down,” Pearl said. “We had to go through Missouri, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee. You could tell these guys were fresh in March. … What’s really interesting down the stretch is these guys aren’t tired.”

Patrick also asked Pearl about the blowout loss to Kentucky back on February 23, ironically the last game the Tigers lost. Since then, Auburn has won 12 straight games and is sitting in the Final Four. Pearl told Patrick about how that loss sparked the NCAA Tournament run.

“When we went to Lexington at the end of February and lost by 27, a couple things happened there. Number one, John (Calipari) told me after the game, ‘Coach, that’s about as good as we could play.’ And he meant it, and I think he knew going into this one (Elite 8 game), ‘You know, guys, we may not shoot it like we shot it last time.’ But Dan, we didn’t play badly (in Lexington). We didn’t let it define us. We didn’t let it throw us off. That was the last game we lost was late in the season at Kentucky. We gave them the credit, and then, we decided that’s a Final Four team (Kentucky) and we’re not. Now, what do we need to do in this next month to try and see if we can make a run. And the kids have done everything that has been required.”

Auburn will play No. 1 Virginia on April 6 at 6:09 p.m. ET.

You can listen to the segment below: