Bruce Pearl sarcastically claps back at 'softball' question about Auburn panic

The Auburn Tigers suffered only their fifth loss of the season on Saturday, as they fell in a hard-fought battle to the Tenneessee Volunteers in the SEC Tournament semifinals. Following the game, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl was asked if his team was panicked, after going down early in the SEC Tourney.

As you might imagine, Pearl clapped back at that question in his post-game press conference.

“Man, I’m really glad you asked me that question. We lost to Alabama, Tennessee, and at Texas A&M. Yeah, we’re panicked,” Pearl scoffed. “That’s a real softball. We lost to some great teams. We lost at the buzzer against Alabama. We had possessions here, so, yeah, we’re panicked,” he said sarcastically.

“I can hardly wait ’til next weekend and start playing again. Just get to Sunday. Let’s find out where we’re going. Let’s find out who we’re playing and let’s get back to work. Looking forward. Not back,” Pearl explained.

Bruce Pearl goes NSFW to defend his guards

Bruce Pearl has the utmost confidence in his Auburn guards to handle their business inside the paint. And the 11-year Tigers head coach isn’t afraid to let the world know it.

Pearl proved that following Friday’s 62-57 win over eighth-seeded Ole Miss in the quarterfinals of the 2025 SEC Tournament. The coach dropped some rather explicit language while making that point on the ESPN set shortly after the game.

“The key to our 3-point line defense is I’ve got bigs that can get out and guard guards, and my guards aren’t p*ssies,” a hyped-up Pearl said live on the ESPN set from inside Bridestone Arena in Nashville. “They’re going to go down there and bang a little bit. (Laughter) … ESPN and Disney aren’t writing my checks right now, Auburn is, OK. So, I can get away with that.”

The No. 3 Tigers were led with 23 points and 15 rebounds by senior forward Johni Broome, who was sitting next to Pearl on the ESPN set and immediately began laughing at his head coach’s locker room language.

Two of those Auburn guards Pearl was talking about, seniors Denver Jones and Miles Kelly, added 13 and nine points, respectively. Ole Miss was led offensively with four players in double-figures, with senior guards Dre Davis and Sean Pedulla scoring 12 points apiece, while senior guard Jaylen Murray and junior forward Malik Dia added 10 points apiece Friday.

Auburn will now await their fate on Selection Sunday as the rest of the SEC Tournament plays out. Most projections have the Tigers slated as a No. 1 overall seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. We’ll see if the selection committee feels that way on Sunday.

On3’s Alex Byington also contributed to this article.