By Ken Cross
Monday, September 22, 2025, is a date that soon will not be forgotten in The Village by the Plains as iconic Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl retired from the game, which had been a part of his character for nearly 50 seasons. Pearl brought sustainability to the Auburn basketball culture as the Tigers displayed three SEC regular season championships as well as two SEC Tournament championships in his tenure.
Pearl’s 11-year Auburn journey allowed him to lead the Tigers to 232 wins as they played a key role in elevating SEC basketball to stand beside its football culture. He led the Tigers to an unprecedented five SEC championships with three regular-season trophies and two SEC Tournament banners. At the beginning of Pearl’s basketball tenure at AU in 2014, he and several well-known basketball coaches joined the league and took the game to the next level.
“Not only have we won championships, but we have built the best home-court advantage in college basketball,” said Pearl. “We’ve invested in this community and changed lives, and we’ve developed and graduated Auburn men. We built a program with the core tenets of faith, family, and passion, and together, we made history. I hope we have made Auburn proud.”
The Boston native joined Dr. Tom Davis as a key assistant coach at Boston College, Stanford, and then Iowa, where he was Davis’s associate head coach in leading the Hawkeyes to the top of the Big Ten.
Pearl has the reputation of one of the top tacticians in college basketball, which, combined with recruiting, communication, and witticism that would fit with the excellence of Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Steve Carell, and Ben Stiller. Pearl is a must-listen anytime he is in front of a microphone, as we noticed in his three-year stint at ESPN.
Many people would wait around after his new conferences or his radio post-game show to see what was on his mind. He turned Auburn Arena into one of the nation’s toughest homecourt advantages.
“I told myself when I got to the point where I could not give it my all, or I wasn’t necessarily 100 percent, or I couldn’t be the relentless competitor that (Auburn) expected of me, that it was going to be time,” said Pearl in a 15-minute video where he officially announced his retirement.
He took over at Southern Indiana, where he built the Screaming Eagles into a Division-II powerhouse in the 1990s as they hung a national championship banner in 1995.
Prowling with the Panthers: The University of Milwaukee gave Pearl his first opportunity at the D-1 level, and the Panthers readily became a championship contender. They won the Horizon League tournament championship in 2003 and 2005 while winning the regular season in 2004 and 2005 in the last three years of his four-year status in Milwaukee. He was also the Horizon Coach-of-the-Year in three of his four seasons in Milwaukee, as the Panthers won 18 of 19 games in 2005.
After Wisconsin-Milwaukee defeated Alabama and Boston College in the 2005 NCAA Tournament to make it to the Sweet 16, Tennessee came calling, and Pearl moved to Knoxville for his first SEC stint.
High VOL-tage: Pearl made the Volunteers a challenger almost immediately. He was the head coach for six seasons, and he took Tennessee to the NCAA Tournament in all six years.
The commitment of players who wanted to play and improve their games encompassed Pearl as he came into Knoxville. The communication and knowing how to work on the fundamentals of the game to get all of these teams to play at higher levels has been one of his strengths.
Pearl took Tennessee to an Elite Eight, three Sweet 16s, and two other NCAA appearances. He also led Tennessee to its first No. 1 ranking in team history when the Vols topped then-No. 1 Memphis in 2008. During this season, the Volunteers also won their first SEC regular-season title since 2000.
A Stellar Breed of Cat: After three years at ESPN, Pearl was hired by Auburn, where he would turn the Tigers into a national power in his 11 years as the head coach on the Plains. Pearl recruited his players at a high level, and Auburn gave him time to build a program that had been down for many years. He placed the Tigers back into the NCAA Tournament in 2018, as they had not appeared in the NCAA Tournament brackets since 2003 under Cliff Ellis.
Pearl led Auburn to the 2019 SEC Tournament championship, when they won four games in four days with an 84-64 win over Tennessee in the SEC Championship game. Pearl had a tough team that had gotten its game totally together late in the season behind two masterful guards in Bryce Brown and Jared Harper. In addition, 6-8 Chuma Okeke was a masterful athlete who led Auburn in rebounding, and he scored consistently.
In the NCAA Tournament, the Tigers passed a tough New Mexico State team, 78-77. The Aggies were led by Coach Chris Jans, now at Mississippi State. The Tigers rolled through a litany of blue bloods in Kansas, North Carolina, and Kentucky. The Tigers outlasted by the Wildcats, 77-71, in overtime, where they suffered the untimely injury of Okeke.
Okeke’s absence was a major reason the Tigers dropped a 63-62 decision to Virginia in the Final Four. Auburn trailed, 57-47, with 5:24 to play, and then Brown propelled them on a 15-3 run that gave the Tigers a 62-60 lead with seven seconds remaining.
Those last seven seconds defined two unconscionable errors by referees as they clearly missed a double dribble with five seconds left, which would have given Auburn the ball with its two-point lead. Instead, the referee blew the whistle at the buzzer when Auburn guard Samir Doughty was called for a foul when Virginia’s Kyle Guy collided with Doughty at the buzzer. Referee James Breeding ignored Guy’s leg-kick and blew the whistle for a foul on Doughty. Guy made all three free throws to give Virginia a 63-62 win.
Pearl handled this with class as he said later that he didnt want to turn the game into a story about that final call.
To Be Feared, To Be Dreaded: Throughout 2020-2025, Pearl’s program categorically produced one of the top teams in college basketball. He attracted high-level players who were developed to be even better within the program. The Tigers improved defensively, which contributed to the perpetual high-octane offenses.
Okeke (Cavaliers), Isaac Okoro (Bulls), Sharife Cooper (Wizards), JT Thor (Hornets), Jabari Smith, Jr., (Rockets), Walker Kessler (Jazz), and Johni Broome (76ers) comprised Pearl’s Auburn entrants into the NBA. Okeke became the first NBA player at Auburn since Chris Morris in 1988. It was the highest number of NBA entrants since Sonny Smith contributed Charles Barkley, Chuck Person, and Chris Morris in the 1980s
The 2022 team was continually one of the best in the nation that rolled to a 22-1 record as Auburn was ranked No. 1 for the first time in history. The Tigers stayed atop the AP poll for three weeks when Kessler and Smith formed one of the top frontcourts in the nation.
The 28-6 record defined this team’s high level, although it was upset in the opening round of the SEC Tournament by Texas A&M. Then, Miami went to the Final Four after stopping the Tigers in the Round of 32.
Power forward Johni Broome came on the scene in 2023-24 and suffered through an ankle and an elbow injury, but the Tigers defeated South Carolina, Mississippi State, and Florida in the SEC Tournament to raise their second SEC banner in five seasons. They were upset by Yale in the NCAA Tournament, which brought an abrupt halt to a team that could have spent a few weekends in the bracket.
Broome returned last season as a deep and talented group of Tigers finished 15-3 in the SEC, which was one game ahead of SEC Tournament champion Florida Gators, who also won the national championship.
Tigers Taste Remarkable Final Year for BP: Last season’s Tigers were a nine or ten-deep basketball team that could win in a myriad of ways as they were the AP’s No.1 team for eight consecutive weeks. This team was reminiscent of an NBA team that could search for a matchup advantage to win. Auburn began 27-2 with non-conference wins over Houston, North Carolina, and Purdue.
Broome averaged a double-double with 18.6 points and 10.8 rebounds per game. He also led five Tigers who averaged double figures, and he averaged 71.2 percent of the season’s minutes on the hardwood. To illustrate this team’s depth, six teammates averaged 50.7 – 70.4 percent of those minutes.
He was acknowledged as the SEC Player of the Year, 2025 All-America, and the National Player of the Year by the Sporting News, NCAA.com, and College Hoops Today.
Pearl used a patented four-guard offense where defensive-minded Denver Jones and shooter Tre Kelly were joined by five-star freshman point guard Tahaad Pettiford and the multi-talented Chad Baker-Mazara. Power forward Dylan Cardwell, small-forward Chris Moore, and versatile Chaney Johnson composed an eight-man rotation which grew to nine or ten players, given the situation.
Auburn took the road into the Final Four with wins over Alabama State and underrated Creighton in the first two rounds in Lexington, Ky., before they went into Atlanta and took down Michigan and Michigan State to get to their second Final Four in six years.
“Auburn Family, I love you, and I hope you understand that for me, it is time,” Pearl said. “Brandy and I are looking forward to the opportunity to continue serving the Auburn Family, just in a new capacity. War Eagle!”
With Pearl’s resignation came the movement of Steven Pearl, his son, into the head coaching position. Steven Pearl will be an excellent transition to follow Bruce, as Steven has been the Auburn associate head coach, assistant coach, and defensive coordinator.
“That journey has shaped how I lead, how I listen, and how I build,” said Steven Pearl. “It’s given me a front row seat to the principles that have made this program so susccessful, and it’s given me the perspective I need to carry them forward.”
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