For new men's basketball assistant strength and conditioning coach Steven Pearl, basketball isn't just a pastime.
It's a game that runs in his bloodline.
"It's been in my blood since I was born," Pearl said. "I was an extension of the coach when I was a player at Tennessee, so I know the ins and outs of it, and I love it."
Pearl, a forward who played in two Sweet Sixteen's and an Elite Eight under his father Bruce and was renowned for his defense at Tennessee, didn't make the jump to coaching immediately when his playing career ended.
Instead, the former Volunteer got a job in marketing, the field he'd earned a degree in, and worked part-time as a member of the Knoxville, Tenn. sports media.
"Right out of college, I got a job with Stryker doing medical sales, covering all of east Tennessee and southwest Virginia," Pearl said. "Over the past year, I started doing radio with Tennessee Sports Radio on Saturdays, and I had my own show. It was just a little something extra on the side to do fun, make a little money and stay close to basketball."
As well as things were going for Pearl in Knoxville, there was little decision to be made on his future when a dream opportunity presented itself in his father's hiring at Auburn.
"Guys who don't have connections start in Division III, junior college or NAIA, and they're graduate assistants," Pearl said. "Not many have the ability to come in at a high level SEC program like Auburn.
"I'd be crazy if I didn't take advantage of this situation with (Bruce) being the coach and me being able to come in on staff right away."
According to Pearl, the transition from working as a marketing representative to coaching at the Division I level has led to a greater level of satisfaction in his work.
"It's what I'm passionate about, and the 12-hour days that I have here are nothing," Pearl said. "When I was doing medical sales, 12-hour days were the worst. But now, I started at 6 a.m. this morning, and it's now 2 o'clock, and I don't feel like I've been here more than 30 minutes."
Though he is still learning the ins and outs of recruiting and coaching, Pearl said the performances of other coaches' sons have him excited about a future in coaching.
"You look at a guy like Richard Pitino, you know, Rick Pitino's son, he's at Minnesota, and they just won the NIT Championship," Pearl said. "That's the kind of thing that inspires me."
Just four years removed from playing at Tennessee, both he and his father like the potential of using Steven as an intermediary between players and the coaching staff.
"He used to get on to me harder than anyone else, so if a guy gets down because the coaches are getting on to him, I can go over there and talk to him and relate," Pearl said. "I can be that median that a lot of staffs may not have. I think it's a huge asset."
Even though Pearl may one day follow in his father's footsteps as a college basketball head coach, for now he said he's content to assist and learn from his father while rebuilding the Auburn basketball program.
"We'll be running and gunning, shooting a lot of threes, getting up and down, playing crazy defense, and we're excited about it," Pearl said. "We try to create some turnovers and offense out of our defense just to create some chaos."
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