Bruce Pearl stresses importance of hitting 20 wins

Bruce Pearl continued to add to his legacy at Auburn on Saturday. With a 79-70 victory against No. 12 Tennessee in the regular season finale, the Tigers notched their fifth 20-win season in the past six years.

All of those seasons came under the direction of Pearl who also led Auburn to its first Final Four appearance in school history in 2019. Pearl’s five 20-win seasons are two more than any Tigers coach, and he put into perspective what the feat means.

“Twenty wins matters,” Pearl said postgame. “…We care about making history. We do. So this team made history.”

Bruce Pearl took over at Auburn in the 2014-15 season and has since led the Tigers to a 186-109 record in that span. The win Saturday tied him with Cliff Ellis for the second-most wins in school history, and he is now 23 more victories away from surpassing Joel Eaves to become the program’s winningest coach.

Auburn trailed 63-60 with 6:15 remaining but went on a 14-3 run over the next five-plus minutes to pull away for good. Wendell Green led the team with 24 points in the win to go along with four assists. The Tigers shot 28-of-57 (49.1%) from the floor and scored 21 points off 11 Tennessee turnovers.

Auburn (20-11, 10-8 SEC) finished seventh in the conference standings with the win. Now with the regular season behind them, the Tigers will focus on achieving success in the postseason, where they are projected to be a No. 11 seed according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.

“Heading into the postseason, I told our guys, ‘one team wins the league,'” Pearl said. “That’s Alabama. The other 13 didn’t. Then the rest of it is about the tournament. It’s all about tournament play and all about the postseason. ‘What kind of seed can you get? What kind of position can you put yourself in to advance in postseason play?’ That’s where we’re at right now.”

Next up for Auburn is the SEC Tournament. They’ll start with a matchup against another potential NCAA Tournament team in Arkansas at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday.