Only 45 days before their first game and on the first official day of College Basketball Practice, Bruce Pearl steps down as the Head Coach at Auburn. Coming off the most successful season in Auburn Basketball History, and one of the most successful regular seasons in College Basketball History by the numbers, there is no doubt that Pearl left a positive legacy during his time with the Tigers. Overall he was 706-268 (.725), and at Auburn winningest coach in the history of the school at 244-123 (.665). With a fiery, unapologetic style, Pearl was able to reach heights at a Football School that very few, if any, thought was possible. He should be given the proper flowers for all of this.
However, it is hard to look at the timing and not question things, at least a little. We are sitting in a window that is too close to the beginning of the season for Auburn’s players to feel comfortable transferring, although technically they can. The NCAA gives players 30 days from the day a coach leaves to transfer without penalty, and we will certainly see a fair number of attempted poachers considering the talent level on Auburn’s roster. To think that a player like Tahaad Pettiford, a projected first round pick, would uproot his situation and learn a completely new system this close to the season is highly unlikely.
In short, unless the players were told by the Pearl family that he was going to be leaving, there is a good chance that they were recruited by Bruce Pearl and expected to play for the legendary coach. Instead, they are now ready to suit up for a first time Head Coach in Steven Pearl, who will be the youngest Head Coach in the SEC at 38. A real gut punch for the young players that were thinking they were walking into an established situation and without a doubt had multiple other options.
This poses the question – “Why now?”. Many will throw out alternate theories and doubtful that Bruce Pearl would ever publicly admit this, but it was obviously to give his son Steven Pearl a guaranteed shot at getting the Head Coaching job. In addition to getting the job in the first place he will now be coaching a loaded roster.
In the new landscape of College Basketball, SEC jobs are highly coveted, and there is no doubt that this job would have had a line of interested coaches a country mile long, if Pearl would have stepped down in the Spring. The names that would have been interested would have been extremely hard to pass up for the Auburn administration, and the likelihood that a Steven Pearl, who was selling Medical Sales Equipment for Stryker in 2014, would have gotten his first Head Coaching Job at an SEC school. Furthermore, there is even less of a chance that the roster that Bruce and company were able to put together coming off a Final Four, would have come together as seamlessly for a first timer as opposed to a probable Hall of Famer.
Do we blame Coach Pearl for helping out his son? No.
Do we feel horrible for the players and their families that were deceived? Extremely.
All in all, time will tell if Steven Pearl is the right man for the job. He has been with his Dad since the beginning of his coaching career and worked his way up from Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach to Associate Head Coach in the course of roughly 10 seasons. He has seen first hand and been a contributor on multiple Final Four Teams, and he needs to be given the proper credit for his role in the build at Auburn. It is impossible to avoid the Nepotism claims given how this whole situation has unfolded, but one thing that will quickly put them to rest will be if this season is successful. The SEC is monster, and Steven will certainly have his hands full in probably the hardest conference in College Basketball.
