Paul Finebaum weighs in on success of Bruce Pearl at Auburn

Hired by the Auburn Tigers in 2014, marking his first head-coaching job since receiving a three-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA for violations committed at Tennessee, Bruce Pearl was lucky, in the eyes of some. Following violations at Tennessee, many seemed unsure that Pearl would find his way back to coaching major college basketball.

But he did. And many years later, the narrative is less about Pearl’s luck landing him the Auburn job. Maybe it’s Auburn’s luck landing Pearl as its head basketball coach. Because what Pearl has accomplished at Auburn has been sensational.

“It’s historic because this is not the way it’s been in the past, other than a couple of very brief moments in time, and there have been those. But for the most part, Auburn has been a cellar-dweller (in basketball),” Finebaum said on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning. “What I find so interesting is going back eight years ago, when Auburn hired Bruce Pearl, he was really a pariah in many ways. The reason he left Tennessee wasn’t because he blatantly robbed a bank, he just wasn’t honest about a very minor rules violation that had he been honest about, it would’ve resulted in maybe a two or three-game suspension for the player.

“It turned out to be, literally, almost one of the worst show-causes we’ve ever seen. He was sent to purgatory for three years.”

Pearl has led Auburn to success before, but this year is a bit different. He has amassed a 163-95 record in nearly eight full seasons at the helm. In the 2017-18 season, he helped Auburn win the SEC regular-season crown. One year later, Pearl’s Auburn Tigers went 30-10 en route to an SEC Tournament championship and a Final Four appearance.

But this year, Auburn went 27-4 (15-3) and won the SEC Tournament regular-season title, and the Tigers could very well receive a No. 1 seed come March. With Auburn’s performance of late, Paul Finebaum has been blown away by the Tigers’ accomplishments.

“It was a gutsy call (by Auburn) to bring him (Pearl) back (to coaching), and look what we have,” Finebaum said. “Not only that, but the fact that he nearly got fired three years ago again, when all of that controversy came up and the school stood by him. They gritted their teeth and they found out that (Pearl) was really not to blame. And here we are, on the cusp of one of the greatest seasons in Auburn history.”

Gus Malzahn sends message to Bruce Pearl after SEC regular-season title

With a win on Saturday, Bruce Pearl led the Auburn Tigers to a 27-4 overall record on the season, including a 15-3 performance against SEC foes, which translated to an SEC Championship — Auburn’s fifth regular-season SEC title and first since 2018.

After the historic accomplishment for Pearl and his Auburn staff, the Tigers head coach received praise from another former Auburn figure in Gus Malzahn. Malzahn is currently the coach of the UCF Golden Knights, where he was hired ahead of the 2021 season. But prior to his arrival in Florida, Malzahn spent eight seasons as the head coach of the Auburn Tigers football program, and much of his tenure overlapped with Pearl.

Malzahn took to Twitter to give kudos to Pearl and the Auburn basketball program after they cut down the nets for the SEC regular-season championship.

“Congrats to my good friend @coachbrucepearl on another SEC Championship!” Malzahn wrote on Twitter. “It’s time for Bruce to be the National Coach of the Year!!”

With the win, Pearl and Auburn clinched a No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament, where the Tigers will face the winner of No. 8 Florida and No. 9 Texas A&M.