Pearl, Tigers focus on NCAA opener after navigating chaos
Bruce Pearl and Auburn’s basketball program have been under a cloud since before the start of the season.
Even though they faced investigations, the loss of an assistant coach, the inel- igibility of two key players, or even Pearl’s minor run-in with an opposing strength coach last week at the SEC tournament, Pearl led the Tigers to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2003.
For Pearl, the bigger concern is how the fourthseeded Tigers will play today against No. 13 seed Charleston in the first round of the Midwest Region. His team has learned to live within the chaos surrounding the program and somehow thrived despite it.
“You go through a process with an internal investigation or answering ques- tions from the NCAA, you know, you only do that for a few hours, or whatever. That’s it,” Pearl said. “Then you move on and go back to focusing on the things that you are at Auburn to do as a student-athlete. It doesn’t dominate our process because it doesn’t dominate our time. The kids had to go through the process. They went through the process and they’re all certified as eligible and we moved on.”
The FBI and NCAA investigations have seemed secondary of late. Auburn (25-7) has been trying to celebrate winning a share of the SEC regular-season title while also dealing with the loss of forward Anfernee McLemore to a season-ending ankle injury in February. That’s left the Tigers with just eight players in their rotation and even more of the load has fallen on guards Bryce Brown and Mustapha Heron.
“I can tell you that we’ve overcome those things and we ended up having a pretty good season. We have much more to show and much more to accomplish,” Brown said.