The day comes when you know you gotta go. Tipsheet certainly knows that feeling.
Even the greatest college coaches can reach the point where it’s time to walk away without being pushed. Bob Stoops retired from Oklahoma football in his prime and Jay Wright moved on from Villanova basketball while he had the Wildcats rolling as a perennial power.
This week ultra-successful Bruce Pearl, 65, stepped away from Auburn basketball just as things were getting real for the upcoming season. He handed the keys to the program to his son Steven.
“We’re not starting over — we’re building forward with the same principles that have made Auburn Basketball elite,” Steven Pearl said. “I’m honored to lead this program, and I’m ready to rise to the moment.”
An original Antler might argue that Bruce Pearl is moving on because every coach can buy players over the table now, thus eliminating the advantage that he long exploited while procuring talent under the table.
Now Mizzou and every other SEC school can get the same sort of players Auburn and Kentucky have been signing, so the league has become a free-for-all.
Obviously, there’s more to Pearl’s exit than that.
He is a high-energy, demonstratively emotional coach. That style welcomes burnout. Watching Pearl frantically coach a game was exhausting, so we can only imagine what it’s like to actually be him.
He recruited elite prospects, who are the hardest to coach. His latest stop was a traditional football school that cared not about basketball -– until he worked his promotional magic with boosters and students.
Pearl cheerfully engaged the media, skirting questions about his questionable recruiting ethics by positioning himself as a lovable scofflaw, a man just doing what he had to do in a famously corrupt industry.
This man never pretended to be something different. He hustled, he worked, and he won. He didn’t set college basketball’s rules of engagement, but he took full advantage of them.
Then the rules of engagement changed. Now Pearl will move on to pursue other interests, perhaps in politics, perhaps in broadcasting.
Don’t expect him to go quietly into the night.
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE
Questions to ponder while wondering if the Detroit Tigers will ever win another game:
How did the floor fall out from under for Mike “I’m a Man!” Gundy so quickly at Oklahoma State?
Who quickly can Chaim Bloom build a winner around Ivan Herrera, Alec Burleson, Brendan Donovan and Masyn Winn?
Will Oliver Marmol chirp at the robot umps next season?
How will history remember Jeff Gordon’s time at the Post-Dispatch?
THE BASKETBALL DIARIES
Here is what folks have been writing about Bruce Pearl:
Ray Ratto, The Defector: “It is a fact that Pearl is a good basketball coach, and also that college sports is a rotten sort of meritocracy. He got work, and won, and got more prestigious work, and won, and continued to act exactly like Bruce Pearl the whole time. While the head coach at Tennessee, he invited recruit Aaron Craft to a cookout at his home even though it was against NCAA rules; not only did Pearl lie about this to the NCAA, even as pictures surfaced disproving that lie, but he encouraged Craft’s father to do the same. Pearl got a show-cause penalty from the NCAA for that, but still got the job at Auburn, where he would go on to receive a two-game suspension from the NCAA in 2021 for failing to adequately supervise (yeah, right) associate head coach Chuck Person, and because he ‘did not promote an atmosphere of compliance.’ He also won a lot of games and made those Final Fours, and as a result could have kept the job for as long as he wanted. He did. Pearl’s attitude was then as it is now: Whatcha gonna do about it?”
Jeff Borzello, ESPN.com: “There were certainly low points — namely the three-year show-cause for lying to the NCAA regarding recruiting violations — but I believe Pearl’s legacy will be as a motivator and program-builder. There are the viral clips of Pearl going shirtless in the student section at football games, rallying support on the sideline. His energy was needed at a place like Auburn, which had gone 11 years without an NCAA tournament appearance before he took over. And he took the Tigers from the bottom tier of the SEC to a consistent contender at the top of what is arguably the best conference the sport has ever seen with three league titles.”
Joe Rexrode, The Athletic: “Think of Tennessee men’s basketball before Bruce Pearl. Think of Auburn men’s basketball before Bruce Pearl. Ernie and Bernie in the 1970s. Charles Barkley in the ’80s. Occasional standouts and signs of life here and there. Mostly, a way to occupy boring winter nights before spring football starts. Look at them now. Look at the SEC now. As Pearl retires, just before the season, handing the program off to son and associate head coach Steven Pearl, he leaves as one of the best and most important coaches in SEC history. Adolph Rupp, Billy Donovan, Dale Brown and John Calipari are the only four with more wins than his 377 between those two schools. You can’t forget the impact of people such as Nolan Richardson and Rick Pitino (Rupp, Donovan, Calipari, Pitino and Joe B. Hall are the only five SEC coaches with more than two Final Fours, Pearl’s total, both at Auburn). And of course, Rick Barnes continues as Tennessee’s winningest coach. But I doubt the Vols would have been a viable choice for Barnes, exiting Texas in 2015, if not for what Pearl did in Knoxville from 2005-11. He showed that copious amounts of energy, talent and coaching acumen can transform the footballiest of campuses into a hoops haven. Then he did it again at Auburn starting in 2014, back when the SEC was a laughingstock in the sport.”
Kyle Boone, CBSSports.com: “Pearl’s abrupt retirement as its men’s basketball coach on Monday — just 42 days out from its season-opener — might come as a surprise to those who have followed Pearl at arm’s length in recent years. It is not, however, a surprise to many who have followed closely Pearl’s evolving passions in recent years. The 65-year-old Pearl in recent months has openly flirted with the idea of staging a run in the political realm, made possible by Tommy Tuberville’s recent decision to vacate his Alabama Senate seat to run for governor. That has coincided with posts shared with increasing frequency on Pearl’s own social media related to politics, the war in Gaza, his Jewish heritage and his support of President Donald Trump. Pearl on Monday swatted down those rumors of an imminent political run, at least for now, in announcing his retirement as basketball coach. His son, Steven, will take over. The elder Pearl will transition into an ambassador’s role in the athletic department as special assistant to the athletic director. Bruce has a few months to change his mind; Alabama’s primary election for the 2026 mid-terms is May 19. Pearl would need at least a few months of runway to establish himself as a legitimate political candidate, though he would conceivably benefit from immense visibility in the Yellowhammer State.”
Kevin Sweeney, SI.com: “Pearl pushed multiple times in the latter part of his Auburn tenure for Steven to be given the head-coach-in-waiting title, something Auburn never agreed to. Without that contractual assurance, Bruce instead walked at a time that gave the Tigers no choice to even explore options. A late-September coaching search would have been untenable, and even making Steven the interim coach would’ve created unneeded drama throughout the season. The only choice was to lock in the younger Pearl as the long-term answer, and Auburn did so by giving him a five-year contract Monday afternoon. Was the calculus of not issuing the coach-in-waiting title worth it for athletic director John Cohen (and former AD Allen Greene, who was in charge when these conversations first popped up after the 2021–22 season)? Only they can answer that. Either way, Bruce Pearl got his wish, and in the process was able to set his son up with an extremely talented roster for his first year.”
MEGAPHONE
“He’s truly one of the best men that I’ve ever met. He’s endeared himself to me as a friend, and has been there every step of the way for me. I don’t know that I’ve ever met anyone that makes everybody in the room feel honored like he does.”
Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze, on Pearl.
P.S.: Thanks for reading. You’ll take care now.
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Jeff Gordon | Post-Dispatch
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