AUBURN, Ala. (BVM) — Before Bruce Pearl made his way to the plains, it would not have been a stretch to say that the Auburn men’s basketball team was the worst in the country. If you look at the winning percentage of every Power Five school in the country, only TCU had a worse winning percentage than Auburn. 

Auburn was in need of a major shakeup if they were ever going to become a competitive basketball team. On Mar. 8, 2014, Auburn hired Bruce Pearl to become their head coach. The infamous head coach had success at Tennessee, but was fired after getting into trouble with the NCAA. Many Auburn fans were worried about the character of Pearl, but his superb resume could not be denied. 

Pearl’s first head coaching job was at the University of Southern Indiana. In the year prior to Pearl’s arrival, the Screaming Eagles had won only ten games. In Pearl’s first season as head coach, the team won 22 games. Pearl would lead the Screaming Eagles to the division two basketball tournament every year, winning the championship in 1995. After winning the championship, Pearl would leave the program to become the head coach at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.

Pearl’s coaching success would continue in Milwaukee, winning 86 games in his four years there. Pearl would lead the Panthers to their best season ever in the 2004-2005 season, leading the team to the Sweet 16 where they would fall to eventual runner-up Illinois. Pearl still holds the record for highest winning percentage of any head coach in Horizon League history.

Pearl had proven he could win as a college coach, but he had yet to prove himself at the highest level. Pearl once again inherited a team that was not good and once again had immediate success. 

After a rout of then-ranked No. 2 Texas, Tennessee would enter the national rankings in a season where they were expected to finish near the bottom of the SEC. Tennessee would also beat eventual national champion Florida twice that season. Pearl had proven that his coaching was good enough to compete at any level of college basketball. 

Pearl would do more than just compete in his time at Tennessee; he would turn them into contenders. After a win over top-ranked Memphis in February of 2008, Tennessee would find themselves ranked number one in the country. Over the next three years, Tennessee would remain near the top of the college basketball world. 

Good things don’t last long in college basketball though, and Pearl was about to find that out the hard way. 

During the 2010-2011 season, the Volunteers started out 7-0 and were ranked number 7 in the country. Everything seemed to go according to plan, until allegations came out that Pearl had violated NCAA recruiting rules. Pearl had also lied to NCAA officials about the incident in question, further damaging his reputation. The allegations sparked many questions about Pearl’s legitimacy as a basketball coach and began to tear the locker room apart.

What once looked to be a promising season for the Volunteers would end in mediocrity. Tennessee was defeated by 30 in the first round of the NCAA tournament, the largest margin of victory between an eighth and ninth seed in the history of the tournament. Pearl was fired after the game and it seemed he would never get a chance to redeem himself again. 

Thankfully for Auburn fans, Pearl would get a chance at redemption. The hiring of Pearl breathed new life into the once dormant Auburn basketball program, but success would not come immediately like it had before for Pearl. 

The Tigers remained in the basement of the SEC for several years, until they finally broke through in 2018. In 2018 the Tigers won their first regular season SEC championship. 

The best was still yet to come for Pearl and the Tigers. In 2019, the Tigers would reach the Final Four, the first in program history and the first time for Pearl as well. Pearl showed off just how dominant his offensive schemes could be, beating some of college basketball’s elite teams en route to the Final Four. Auburn almost had a shot at the championship, but a couple of bad breaks kept them from the ultimate prize. 

Pearl has Auburn basketball on the rise and has turned the school into a premiere destination for elite basketball recruits. Some may be surprised by how he resurrected the Auburn basketball program, but they shouldn’t be. Pearl has won everywhere that he has coached and there is little reason to believe he won’t keep on winning. 

Every player Pearl coaches turns into gold, so if Pearl is coaching your basketball team, there is a good chance some wins are about to come your team’s way. 

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