It's been just over a month since new Auburn Athletic Director Allen Greene's official installation at the University, and it seems as if Auburn's board made the right choice in the 40-year-old.
Greene has done everything that a new face of a program should: be friendly, present and have a clear vision. His plan for success atop Tigers athletics was explicitly stated in his introductory press conference Jan. 19.
"We don't all look alike, we don't all act alike, we don't all talk alike," Greene said in January. "We don't all believe in the same things, but that doesn't mean we can't be teammates. That doesn't mean we can't be partners, brothers or sisters. So we will embrace a culture of diversity. We will embrace different beliefs. We will challenge one another to think differently, all to make Auburn a better University."
Greene's partnerships at Auburn were going to be tested early and often, with multiple teams under national scrutiny over scandals at the time of his arrival. At the forefront was the men's basketball program, which won an SEC title in the 2017-18 season in its fourth year under head coach Bruce Pearl.
On Wednesday, Greene announced his intentions to “absolutely” keep Pearl as Auburn’s head coach if there are no new issues that arise from the FBI investigation regarding the program.
“Bruce feels like he’s done nothing wrong,” Greene said on the WJOX Roundtable radio show. “He and I have talked about that. I don’t have a reason to do anything other than what we’ve been doing and supporting him and his student-athletes.”
Pearl had been previously bashed for his "lack of cooperation" with the FBI in their probe into the Chuck Person investigation, in which two Auburn players -- believed to be Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy -- were found to have accepted corrupt bribes and other funds in conjunction with Person’s agent services.
“I know our fan base is incredibly excited about the job coach Pearl and his staff has done,” Greene said. “I got a chance to watch a couple games in person, and to watch our student athletes compete, it made me really proud to be an Auburn Tiger. That’s the type of competition and drive and fire we want the fan base to see.”
After Wiley was ruled eligible for 2018-19 in January, the NCAA declared earlier this month that Purifoy will be allowed to return as well after serving a "30 percent" suspension, which should amount to nine or 10 games.
“We didn’t get that way overnight, and we won’t fix things overnight,” Greene said. “But knowing that the process of the FBI and NCAA investigation is — who knows how long it’s going to be? It’s going to be lengthy — so I think it’s in our best interest to stay the course.”
Greene also praised Pearl in an in-house podcast on March 24, calling the coach's efforts with the FBI "excellent."
“The FBI investigation is a long process and we’re going through that process to make sure that we, as a university, are doing what it is that we’re supposed to do to comply,” Greene said on the podcast. “Coach Pearl has been excellent in that regard, and I look forward to continuing to work with him as we continue to do the very best that we can to support he, his staff and the student-athletes of Auburn University.”
The world of NCAA basketball has found itself in limbo, waiting on official rulings at numerous big-name programs across the country. Fans have caught wind of the rule breaking by schools like Duke and Arizona but have yet to see action taken.
The same goes for Auburn. Wiley and Purifoy's reinstatement, paired with Pearl's apparent cooperation is positive news, but the possibility remains of the NCAA taking further, more cut-throat action with head coaches.
Despite the vague void ahead that could implode the program, Greene remains optimistic and says he will continue to work tirelessly alongside Pearl and Auburn basketball.
"We want to work incredibly hard to make sure we clean up the game, that it is as pure as it can possibly be so that our student-athletes can enjoy the experience and the intercollegiate athletic experience," Greene said. "One of the things that we have to keep in mind is that the state of college basketball is not in a good place right now and I'm a little bit disappointed, obviously, that Auburn basketball is involved in that, but that doesn't take away from the excellent job that Coach Pearl has done.
"You think about our basketball program, we've got the highest Academic Progress Rate in program history, we have eight student-athletes with a 3.0 GPA — and Coach Pearl is enthusiastic and as welcoming and exciting as he is, he's been a tremendous blessing for the Auburn Family."
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