After achieving the highest of regular season highs over the weekend, Auburn men’s basketball was brought back down Tuesday night, losing on the road to Texas A&M.

It came just three days after the Tigers clinched the Southeastern Conference regular season championship with a win over Kentucky. Tuesday’s performance was almost night and day from Saturday’s, a day where Auburn won in Rupp Arena for the first time since 1988.

Auburn’s 83-72 loss to Texas A&M was its largest defeat of the season and the Aggies’ first win over an AP No. 1 team in program history.

In terms of conference implications, there was nothing riding on Tuesday’s game for Auburn. Even when looking ahead to the NCAA Tournament, Auburn had likely already locked up a one-seed and a road Quad I loss shouldn’t do too much to hurt Auburn’s chances at the No. 1 overall seed.

However, that doesn’t make a late-season, double-digit loss any easier to take. But despite a dominant season up to this point, should a late season loss like Tuesday’s be reason for concern?

It’s not totally uncommon for top teams, even championship teams to lose unexpectedly late in the season. College basketball seasons are long, and it’s nearly impossible to run the table, especially in a league as tough as the SEC.

For example, last season’s Alabama team that made the Final Four lost four of its last six games before March Madness, including a 22-point loss to Kentucky and two double-digit losses to Florida. That didn’t stop the Crimson Tide from winning four straight games in the big dance to reach its first Final Four in program history.

Even last season’s seemingly impenetrable UConn suffered a 19-point loss to Creighton on Feb. 20, four games before the end of the regular season.

These losses can come down to a number of things, and sometimes the variables are out of the team’s control. Against Texas A&M Tuesday night, Auburn was without its starting point guard and top perimeter defender Denver Jones, who would have helped against the Aggies’ dynamic guards.

Sometimes an unexpected loss can come down to late-season fatigue, which becomes even easier to slip into if, like Auburn, there’s nothing left to play for in the regular season.

Baylor’s 2021 team — a group that won the national championship — had all but already secured a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament when it began its journey in the Big 12 Tournament.

The Bears had been dominant all season, ranking in the KenPom top three for the entire campaign. But with no real NCAA Tournament implications in the conference tournament, Baylor fell in the semifinals to Oklahoma State, a tough loss to take going into the NCAA Tournament.

That didn’t stop Baylor from completing a dominant run to a national championship, even beating an undefeated and loaded Gonzaga team by 16 in the championship game.

Even Auburn’s Final Four team in 2019 lost by 27 to Kentucky on the road in late February. It was only fitting that a win over the Wildcats in the Elite Eight sent Auburn to its first Final Four in program history.

All of this is to say that one loss — or even a few losses — doesn’t necessarily mean a team is falling apart going into the postseason.

Are there examples of late-season form being a warning sign for the postseason? Sure. Auburn’s 2022 team that spent three weeks as the No. 1 team in the country lost two of its final four games before March Madness — one of them to Texas A&M — and suffered an early exit in the second round.

That team started the season 22-1, but went 6-5 in its final 11 games, including the 18-point loss to seven-seed Miami in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32.

Houston last season is another team that may have been rocked by a late-season setback. The Cougars finished the regular season 28-3, winning the Big 12 outright and spending most of the campaign ranked No. 1 in KenPom.

However, Houston’s last game before the NCAA Tournament was a 69-41 drubbing at the hands of Iowa State. Houston still earned a No. 1 seed, but barely survived a scare from Texas A&M in the second round and lost to Duke in the Sweet Sixteen.

Only time will truly tell what the fate of this year’s Auburn team will be, but if its resume is any indication, it’s more than capable of competing with and beating any team in the country.

One SEC road loss to a top 25 team in early March doesn’t change that.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at prauterkus@al.com