This is an opinion column.
Bruce Pearl couldn’t help himself.
Maybe Poppa Pearl isn’t done coaching after all.
Auburn’s former coach kept a low profile for most of his son’s game on Thursday here in Nashville, but then, with a few minutes to go inside Bridgestone Arena, the father of current Auburn coach Steven Pearl found his way behind the Tigers’ bench. He was screaming like old times and all but coaching over Steven’s shoulder.
Not that it helped.
The transition from Pearl to Pearl was pretty awkward from start to finish this season, and no more so than in the Tigers’ disappointing, 72-62 loss to Tennessee in the second round of the SEC tournament.
Backseat drivers are annoying. Backseat coaches will drive a team off a cliff.
Predictably, Auburn blew it once again in the second half, and it was hard to watch.
We’ve seen it so many times, though.
This Auburn team was more annoying than someone chewing loudly while listening to music without headphones on an airplane full of obsessively licking dogs.
They were licked one last time before Selection Sunday, and now it’s up to the NCAA Tournament bracket builders to determine whether or not Steven Pearl’s first team should be awarded a spot in the Big Dance.
I’m going to guess no on that one, but give Steven credit for making a good case for his team after his brief debut as a head coach in the SEC tournament.
The NCAA Tournament, Pearl noted, “is a tournament of who you can beat, and if we’re going to look at six teams on the bubble right now with Texas, SMU, VCU, Miami (Ohio), Missouri, New Mexico, you know, we have more Top 25 NET wins than everyone in that group except Missouri. We have more Top 50 wins than everyone in that group.”
It’s the losses over the last two months of the season, however, that I can’t get over, and I suspect that the NCAA Tournament selection committee will punch those numbers into its big calculator, too.
Auburn has won a grand total of three games since the end of January. That’s only one more win than the number of Pearls still trying to figure out what went wrong this season.
That answer is easy, though.
Poppa Pearl should have coached this team instead of Steven. Didn’t the players sign on to play for Bruce? If the answer is yes, then he should have coached them. It’s that simple.
That’s not to say Steven isn’t a good coach. He had his moments this season, but Steven needs to find his own players who want to be coached hard by him and not his father.
Of course, Steven has two fathers these days.
There’s Poppa Pearl and then there’s Nate Oats.
Daddy Oats and Alabama enter the SEC tournament at 6 p.m. on Friday against 15-seed Ole Miss. In a conference tournament of tough teams, the Tide suddenly has a favorable path to the championship game. A victory for Alabama against Ole Miss sets up a semifinal against either Oklahoma or Arkansas.
On the other side of the bracket, top-seed Florida plays Kentucky at noon on Friday and the winner of that game faces either fan-favorite Tennessee or hometown-darling Vanderbilt.
The Tigers flamed out early here in Nashville, but I’m happy to note that the embers of Auburn’s rivalry with Alabama are still burning hot. Pearl was asked a question about his first season as a head coach after the loss to Tennessee, and his answer made me chuckle.
Pearl apparently has absolutely zero respect for Alabama’s Oats.
During his post-game news conference, Vols coach Rick Barnes made a point to compliment Steven Pearl, a former Tennessee basketball player. For a young coach, Barnes said, Steven did a great job this season. A reporter then relayed that message to Pearl and wanted to know what it was like being in the fraternity of SEC head coaches after grinding as a player and then as an assistant.
There were a lot of pinch-me moments for Steven Pearl this season, who took over at Auburn only three weeks before the Tigers’ first game.
“In my shoes,” Pearl said, “you look down the sideline and it’s [John Calipari], it’s Barnes, it’s now Todd Golden. You know, some of the best names. And then you look at our non-conference, hell, and it’s Kelvin Sampson at Houston, Matt Painter (Purdue) and Steven Pearl is on the other end? It’s crazy.”
No mention of Oats?
Fair or not, I’ll interpret that slight as a backhand to the face.
Oats is one of the best coaches in college basketball. Steven Pearl has a lot to learn, and I suspect he’ll have plenty of time this March to study Alabama’s run through in the NCAA Tournament.
MAILBAG SOUND OFF
Got a question for Joe? Want to get something off your chest? Send Joe an email about what’s on your mind. Let your voice be heard. Ask him anything for the reader mailbag.
