Auburn Basketball: Bruce Pearl should be the Coach of the Year

Many coaches have been impressive this season with their respective teams. But in my opinion, no one’s done better than Bruce Pearl for Auburn basketball.

When the college basketball’s corruption and bribery scandal was brought into the light by the FBI right before the season, most eyes were on Louisville. They lost their head coach, athletic director, and top-rated recruit for this season. But another team had their own issues to deal with that could have easily derailed the season.

Auburn was involved in the investigation, with assistant coach Chuck Person being arrested and charged with six federal counts of corruption and bribery. Two players who implicated as well in sophomores Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy. Both were held out to start the season, and have yet to be declared eligible to play for the 2017-18 season.

That was supposed to hurt the Tigers badly this season, as they were expected to be the starting frontcourt for the team. Purifoy’s absence, in particular, hurts, as he was second on the team last year in both points and rebounds at 11.5 ppg and 4.7 rpg. To top things off, Bruce Pearl was close to getting fired, as he originally refused to cooperate with the school’s internal investigation.

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But once the season began, Auburn’s basketball team put everything aside and focused solely on their play on the court. In the third game of the season, the Tigers fell by 14 to Temple, a team that’s been mediocre for the season.

That turned out to be the only team to beat Auburn so far, as they now have the nation’s longest winning streak at 14 games. They also occupy the best record in the country at 16-1. The non-conference schedule didn’t have many big names, but road wins over Dayton and Middle Tennessee were very impressive for college basketball observers.

The early SEC schedule was tough for this team, as they faced three likely NCAA tournament teams. The first two came against ranked opponents Tennessee and Arkansas. But Auburn has prevailed in all four, averaging 85.8 ppg in those battles. The Tigers are a top-15 nationally ranked scoring offense and is best in the SEC.

When it comes to the players, basically everyone has stepped up their production from a year ago. Particularly 6’3 guard Bryce Brown, who upped his scoring average from 7.5 ppg to a team-best 16.0 ppg. The best player on the team has been Mustapha Heron, whose numbers are similar on average from a year ago, but excluding the first three games this year, has scored at least 13 points in all but one game.

Due to the losses of the bigs, the size and depth of Auburn have been lacking, with no one in the main rotation over 6’9″. But the coaching staff has made it work, and the new starters DeSean Murray and Anfernee McLemore have been very productive. Murray leads the team in rebounding at 7.5 rpg while McLemore leads the conference in blocks per game at 3.1.

So one would think that the coach of this team would be getting some serious consideration for National Coach of the Year? It’s not in this case, as there’s been little to no credit given to Bruce Pearl.

And I get it, as there might not be a more controversial coach in the game right now than him. He was fired from his previous job at Tennessee for multiple infractions, as well as his issues with telling the truth. His issues even date back nearly 30 years to his days in the Big Ten when it comes to shady recruiting practices.

A legit argument can be made that he shouldn’t even be the head coach right now with the Tigers as he didn’t monitor his program (again). But feelings about the man aside, there’s no doubt about his coaching abilities. He’s been a winner pretty much everywhere he’s been, and Pearl made Tennessee nationally relevant, not something that’s easy to do.

What he’s doing this season at Auburn is incredibly impressive, considering that the top pro talents are both sitting out. He has the Tigers sitting at the top of the SEC, and based on the upcoming schedule could make a big run up the top-25 ladder.

Next: Where is Auburn in our latest Bracketology?

If another coach was at the helm, both he and this team would be getting much more recognition. But regardless of how I or others may feel about the man personally, he’s done a terrific job with this team considering the circumstances.

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