The back-and-forth between Auburn and Queens continued on Thursday night. Royals head coach Ryan Leonard took the latest one, this time going after Bruce Pearl. Somebody captured a moment at the SEC Tournament on Thursday where Pearl was upset with officiating. A few screams came from the stands directly behind the Auburn bench.
Leonard took to social media when the video was posted to X. He joked Pearl was actually upset at him for making a comment about an Auburn assistant coach. Of course, he is referring to an Auburn staff showing up to a Queens game to effectively scout one of their players before the NCAA transfer portal opened.
“He was mad at me, I said something about assistants not being focused on the current game,” Leonard said.
Auburn and Queens faced each other just after the Christmas break on Dec. 29. To no surprise, the Tigers got an easy win at home thanks to a monster first half, 106-65 being the final. Four different Auburn players finished in double-figures, as Elijah Freeman led the way with 27 points. Kevin Overton was not too far behind due to 23 of his own.
Now, just around three months later, there is beef between the two. Originally, Leonard called out an unnamed SEC assistant for attending a game of theirs. Eventually, word came out that Auburn was the program behind the operation. Steven Pearl later defended the move, saying, “It is a permissible activity” in a text message to The Athletic.
Everything kicked off because of a tweet Leonard sent out on Wednesday. “We had an SEC assistant buy a courtside seat for one of our conference tournament games to ‘get ahead’ of recruiting (one) of my kids,” he said.
Leonard is clearly frustrated by the situation. But at least he can throw a joke or two in there.
Queens will hear their name called on Selection Sunday. The ASUN crowned the Royals conference tournament champions on Friday, meaning they will be the automatic bid. This comes after a record of 13-5 during ASUN play, finishing third during the regular season. An NCAA Tournament bid in the program’s fourth year at the Division I level is a major accomplishment.
Auburn will be sweating a little bit more than their December opponents. Losing at the SEC Tournament on Thursday to Tennessee, plus some bid-stealers across the country, might wind up costing them.