Bruce Pearl: "This is the strongest collection of coaches that the SEC has ever had in men's basketball"

The college basketball off-season is slowly grinding to a halt, and while most everyone’s focus is slowly beginning to turn to football, it shouldn’t be lost what the SEC did in men’s basketball over the last few months.

If anything, it’s only a continuation of what has gone on across the league the last several years.

Gone are the days where SEC hoops basically boiled down to Kentucky, Florida and maybe one or two other programs. Instead, Tennessee and LSU have both won SEC titles within the last four seasons, Auburn made its first Final Four in school history in 2019 and Alabama and Arkansas are both coming off second weekend NCAA Tournament appearances. Not to mention just about everyone in the league improved via the transfer portal this off-season, as I had seven different SEC teams included in my “transfer portal winners” this off-season. And as usual, the league will be loaded with talented freshmen including Kentucky’s TyTy Washington, Alabama’s JD Davison, Tennessee’s Kennedy Chandler and Auburn’s Jabari Smith among the most high-profile enrollees.

So yeah, if you’re looking around and thinking to yourself, “Man, SEC basketball has never been better” well, you might not be onto to something. As a matter of fact, one of the deans of SEC coaching agrees with you.

That man is Bruce Pearl, who, through stints with Tennessee and Auburn has had a close-up look at SEC basketball for well over 15 years now. And in a recent appearance on KSR’s “Aaron Torres Podcast,” Pearl said that he believes the league is as strong as its ever been.

That’s especially true in the coaching, according to Pearl (you can listen to the whole interview here):

“I really think it’s the investments that the SEC has made in men’s basketball,” Pearl told Torres. “This is a strong statement, and this isn’t a criticism of coaches in the past, because I was a part of it. [But] This is the strongest collection of coaches that the SEC has ever had in men’s basketball. I’m talking top to bottom. It’s been said before, and it’s been said through the years, but you stop and look at the landscape now, my goodness gracious.”

Pearl isn’t lying, and the numbers support it, especially after the big runs from Alabama and Arkansas this year.

In total, six different current SEC coaches have coached in at least one Final Four – Pearl (Auburn), John Calipari (Kentucky), Rick Barnes (Tennessee), Tom Crean (Georgia), Frank Martin (South Carolina) and Ben Howland (Mississippi State). That’s especially impressive when you consider it’s the same as the conference that so many believe to be the “best” in college hoops, the Big 12, which also has six (Scott Drew, Bill Self, Chris Beard, Bob Huggins, Porter Moser and Bruce Weber). Meanwhile, the ACC which has four coaches who’ve made a Final Four (Coach K, Jim Boeheim, Jim Larrañaga and Tony Bennett), the Pac-12 has two (Mick Cronin and Dana Altman), as does the Big East (Jay Wright and Shaka Smart) and the Big Ten, incredibly, has just one (Tom Izzo).

What makes the SEC so impressive though is what Pearl said – the top to bottom depth of the league. On top of those six that have made at least one Final Four, there are others that are quickly emerging. In just six years as a college head coach Arkansas’ Eric Musselman has a Sweet 16 and Elite Eight to his name, while Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams has made multiple second weekends as well. Cuonzo Martin and Will Wade have one Sweet 16 appearance and Nate Oats is obviously coming off a Sweet 16 run of his own. Mike White made an Elite Eight in his second season at Florida. That means incredibly, 12 of 14 coaches in the league have made it to at least a Sweet 16 at some point in their careers. Only Kermit Davis and Jerry Stackhouse have never made it to the second weekend as a head coach.

So yeah, when you have a conference of 14 teams, and 12 coaches have made the Sweet 16 or beyond and six have gone to a Final Four, you know there is some elite coaching going on. But as Pearl also mentioned on the show, it’s worth noting: There are more, quality players coming into and leaving the league as well.

“You look at the number of guys playing in the NBA from the SEC, you look at last year’s Finals, Miami [Heat] vs. LA [Lakers], I think there were nine players who played in the SEC,” Pearl said. “So I think student-athletes are being to appreciate the support, the quality of coaching and the opportunity to play at the next level by playing basketball in the SEC.”

In total, there were actually 11 total players from the SEC on the two NBA Finals rosters (only six actually played in the finals however) and it’s worth noting that the uptick in player talent is there as well. If anything, that was only heightened after the finals, when, believe it or not, the SEC actually led every college basketball conference with the number of overall draft picks.

Last year the @SEC lead all other conferences in NBA draft picks. Our conference is proven to help get players to the next level. It just means more! pic.twitter.com/HizOk8FuzG

— Michael Musselman (@michaelmuss_13) May 19, 2021

Point being, that whether you’re an SEC fan or not, it’s clear that the league has never been stronger in men’s basketball. And with an influx of talent via the transfer portal (there are simply too many names to list here, but the talent is staggering) it isn’t going to slow down.

As the old saying goes “It just means more.”

That’s been the case in football. And there’s no doubt it’s the same in basketball as well.

To listen to the full interview with Bruce Pearl, click here or listen below