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Auburn

Bruce Pearl surpasses Joel Eaves to become Auburn's all-time winningest coach

IMG_0985by:Griffin McVeigh•01/07/25•

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bruce-pearl-auburn-basketball (2)
Bruce Pearl (Photo by Auburn Athletics)

History was made Tuesday night from Austin, TX. No. 2 Auburn continued to roll through their schedule and improve to 14-1 overall, taking down Texas in SEC play. But this one is a little different, specifically for head coach Bruce Pearl.

With the win, Pearl becomes the winningest head coach in Auburn history. He surpassed Joel Eaves after tying the record against Missouri. Pearl now stands alone at the top with 214 (and counting) wins.

“Honestly nobody enjoys winning more than me, nobody hates losing more than me,” Pearl said Saturday. “I’m a really bad loser, and when I get to the next one I will celebrate whatever we accomplished this year this summer. I’ll sit with my friends and my family, the Auburn family, on the boat at Lake Martin, out on the golf course, nobody will enjoy it more.”

Auburn hired Pearl ahead of the 2014-2015 season and there were certainly some bumps along the way. They did not make the NCAA Tournament until his fourth season, continuing a drought that lasted over a decade, 14 to be exact. Of those 14 seasons, 10 of them finished below .500.

Even so, the program has been built and is now a mainstay in the NCAA Tournament. This will be the fourth year in a row Auburn has participated in March Madness, something they have not done since the late 1980s under Sonny Smith.

Once in the tournament, success has followed Auburn. The run everyone remembers came in 2018 when the Tigers made their first-ever Final Four. Taking down blue bloods Kansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina made the wins all more magical.

Of the 214 wins now on the resume, seven of those come from the NCAA Tournament.

Comparing Pearl’s NCAA Tournament success to the man he passed, Eaves, there is no comparison. Eaves coached in an era when less than 30 teams were included in the field and Auburn never made an appearance. Despite a 213-100 record while at Auburn, Eaves never had an opportunity to compete for a national championship.

Folks on the Plains certainly feel like this year’s team has the chops to cut down the nets in San Antonio. Taking the all-time win record is a nice moment for Pearl but for now, his main focus will be Saturday’s road trip to face South Carolina as the journey continues.