Charles Barkley on Bruce Pearl: 'I love our coach

Bruce Pearl has taken Auburn to four straight NCAA Tournaments and has the Tigers primed for another this year, entering play Saturday as the No. 15-ranked team in the country. Tigers legend Charles Barkley has certainly taken notice.

Barkley joined the ESPN broadcast as Auburn took on West Virginia as part of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge and had some high praise for Pearl, who was coaching against another one of Barkley’s favorite coaches in Bob Huggins. Auburn has long been known to be more of a football school, but Pearl has the Tigers rolling.

Barkley said Pearl’s success speaks for itself, and he put him in a class of his own.

“I love our coach,” Barkley said. “I know we’re never going to get out-coached. He’s one of the best in-game coaches I’ve ever been around. … We’ve got two great coaches here today. But I love our coach.”

Auburn is looking to bounce back from a loss to Texas A&M earlier this week which snapped the longest home winning streak in the nation. Prior to that game, the Tigers had won 28 consecutive games at The Jungle over a 702-day span.

In his postgame press conference, Pearl explained what went wrong while also giving credit to the Aggies, who he said are one of the better teams in the SEC this season.

“We’ve gotta get to the next play. Texas A&M is a really, really good team. I think they’re one of the Top-4 teams in our league. They outplayed us tonight, they played really well,” Pearl said. “I’m not upset about the loss because we just got beat tonight. They played great and they’re capable of that. They’re a really good team, a veteran team. It’s a talented team, a physical team. They’re gonna have a good year because they’re good.”