Bruce Pearl has stepped down as the boys’s basketball coach at Auburn and can transfer into an envoy’s function within the athletic division as particular assistant to the athletics director, the varsity introduced Monday.
Steven Pearl, Pearl’s son and the Tigers’ affiliate head coach, acquired a five-year contract as this system’s new head coach.
Bruce Pearl, 65, is coming off a season wherein he guided Auburn to its second-ever Last 4 look. The Tigers earned the No. 1 total seed within the NCAA males’s event after profitable the SEC regular-season championship, racking up 32 wins earlier than falling to Florida within the nationwide semifinal.
He has been the pinnacle coach at Auburn for 11 seasons, main the Tigers to 6 NCAA event appearances and each of this system’s Last 4 runs. Throughout Pearl’s time at Auburn, the Tigers earned at the least a share of three SEC regular-season titles and received two SEC event championships.
He went 246-125 at Auburn, however solely 232 of these wins are acknowledged due to NCAA infractions that led the Tigers to vacate video games from the 2016-17 season.
“Eleven years in the past, I used to be given the chance of a lifetime to grow to be the pinnacle basketball coach at Auburn, and it has been nothing in need of wonderful,” Pearl mentioned in an announcement. “With the Auburn Household’s unwavering assist, now we have constructed a program from the bottom up and brought it to heights it had by no means reached earlier than. Not solely have we received championships, however now we have constructed the most effective home-court benefit in faculty basketball, we’ve invested on this neighborhood and altered lives, and we’ve developed and graduated Auburn males. We constructed a program with the core tenants of religion, household and fervour, and collectively, we made historical past. I hope now we have made Auburn proud.”
Pearl has lengthy been linked to a post-coaching profession in politics, one thing he addressed in early September following monthslong rumors relating to him as a possible candidate for Tommy Tuberville’s open U.S. Senate seat, however he mentioned Monday he’s not working for Senate.
“Lots of you recognize that I assumed and prayed about possibly working for United States Senate, possibly to be the following nice senator from the state of Alabama,” Pearl mentioned. “That may’ve required leaving Auburn. And as an alternative, the college has given me a possibility to remain right here and be Auburn’s senator.”
Earlier than taking up at Auburn, Pearl had been the pinnacle coach at Tennessee, Milwaukee and Southern Indiana. He went to the NCAA event in all six of his seasons with the Volunteers, together with three Candy 16 appearances and one Elite Eight run. He was fired in 2011 after being charged by the NCAA with unethical conduct after mendacity throughout an investigation into recruiting violations.
Pearl was given a three-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA, with Auburn hiring him 5 months earlier than it ended.
Steven Pearl performed 101 video games for his father at Tennessee from 2007-11. He then was a medical gross sales consultant for 3 years earlier than becoming a member of the Auburn workers in 2014, and was promoted to affiliate head coach earlier than the 2023-24 season.
“I’m extremely grateful to President Dr. Roberts, Athletics Director John Cohen, and the complete Auburn management workforce for entrusting me with this once-in-a-lifetime alternative,” Steven Pearl mentioned in an announcement. “In a way, I’ve spent my lifetime making ready for this second, studying from among the finest in BP, and constructing a basis rooted in character, arduous work, and team-first values. We’re not beginning over — we’re constructing ahead, with the identical rules which have made Auburn Basketball elite. I’m honored to steer this program, and I’m able to rise to the second.”