Unfortunately I was very wrong as Tony Barbee became maybe the worst basketball coach in Auburn history and the program sank even lower which even I did not think was possible. In 2012 I noted that the program was in "Critical Condition" after the 2010-11 team was midway through the season projected "to wind up as the worst-ever BCS-league team according to Jerry Palm, operator of CollegeRPI.com" and then the 2011-12 team ended the season with a point-shaving scandal. Shortly after that and Auburn had lost a bunch more players it sure looked like "Auburn basketball is at a dead end". Even then the worst was to come with the 2012-13 team as they lost their last 10 games in a row and 16 out of 17 games to end the season. It even appeared Coach Barbee gave up during that span. He showed no fire, never got off the bench and just doled out platitudes after games.
Barbee finally had a couple of decent players this year in senior Chris Denson (one of only two players to last four years with Barbee) and junior transfer K.T. Harrell but started 0-6 in the SEC to kill any momentum and ended 6-12 in the SEC. Auburn fired Barbee after he went one-and-out in the SEC tournament for the fourth time in a row. He finished 18-50 in the SEC, the worst coach in modern Auburn basketball history. Auburn remains second behind South Carolina (by four losses) as the worst program in the SEC since 1992. Barbee not only was a bad coach but his defensive foul-first philosophy made even his wins hard to watch.
It appeared it was about to call time of death on Auburn basketball. As a friend of mine said a month or so ago there were maybe five coaches in the whole world who could have a chance to turn around this program and there is no way we get any of them. Bruce Pearl is one of those coaches and we got him. I do not give much credit to AD Jay Jacobs as many are doing because Pearl was the obvious choice, the question was whether he would even consider Auburn. Auburn basketball finally got it's first lucky break in many years when Pearl did consider and then choose Auburn to return to coaching.
The Auburn basketball program was in all reality this close to death in my opinion. They had the paddles out and at the last moment the program was revived. Bruce Pearl may be the biggest coaching hire in Auburn sports history. It certainly is the biggest in it's basketball history. The guy has made mistakes but without those mistakes Auburn would not have a chance at him. Pearl and Auburn basketball have some scars and hopefully then can heal together. Even after the way things ended at Tennessee I have always liked Bruce Pearl. I remember a radio interview he did after first coming to Tennessee, it was just so different from every other coaching interview you hear. The guy was so genuine and engaging. I cannot believe he is now at Auburn.
Auburn needed Pearl and all his personality so much, hopefully as much as Pearl needed a school to embrace him after his fall from grace. I loved watching the scene at the airport as Pearl jumped into a mob of students. I loved the presser as Pearl yelled "War Eagle!" and joked about his contract and teaching an ethics class, nobody else but Pearl would go there. I also love that Pearl will bring up-tempo fun basketball back to Auburn. Auburn people loved the 1999 team not just because it won but the way it played.
Pearl's resume is sometimes lost in his larger than life personality. He won a Division II national championship at Southern Indiana. He took Milwaukee to the Sweet Sixteen beating Bama in the process. He then took a Tennessee team who had gone 14-17 the year before he got there to SIX STRAIGHT NCAA TOURNAMENT APPEARANCES INCLUDED TWO SWEET SIXTEENS AND AN ELITE EIGHT. Bruce Pearl is the best basketball coach Auburn has ever brought in and I hope that finally Auburn basketball will be able to say the same thing Pearl did to end his introductory press conference at Auburn and that is... "I'M BAAAAAACK!".
WAR EAGLE AND WAR BRUCE PEARL!!!
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