While Auburn Arena exploded with all the sound and fury of a celebration-deprived fanbase desperate for a marquee win on Saturday, Bruce Pearl, the passionate and spirited leader of the Tigers, stood unusually still on the side of the court, silently savoring the scene in front of him.
"I wanted to see that special celebration," Pearl said. "I didn't want to be in the middle of it cause I'd get killed, but I wanted to watch it, and I wanted to see those guys enjoy themselves."
His team had just knocked off Kentucky, the perennial national powerhouse who hadn't lost to Auburn since Jan. 11, 2000. The Tigers came into the game having lost three games in a row by especially ugly margins, and only the bravest would've chosen Auburn to pull the upset against the Wildcats.
But somehow, Auburn — down three rotation players and on the tail end of a nasty losing streak, as well as being a 12-point underdog — was able to right the ship and flip the script on Kentucky.
As impressive as the win is, what might be more notable is how he's been able to take a cold, lifeless program and defibrillate it back to life.
When Pearl was hired under two years ago, the Auburn basketball program was in a state of flux.
Tony Barbee, the previous coach, had been underwhelming in his tenure, limping to a 49-75 record in his four years at the helm, and the Tigers had finished with a winning record just four times since the turn of the century.
During the Barbee era, the average attendance at Auburn Arena never reached more than just over 6,500, and that came in 2011, when Auburn went 14-3 at home en route to a 15-16 season.
But when the news broke that Pearl was hired, a jolt of energy was sent coursing through the veins of the program, stirring to life the aspirations and excitement that were long-gone.
From the moment Pearl stepped on campus, his exuberant personality resonated profoundly. As soon as he got off his plane at the Auburn Regional Airport, he jumped into a waiting throng of fans on the tarmac, whipping them into a frenzy. His personality alone had enough power to reel in recruits, but a stellar resume from his time at Tennessee and Wisconsin-Milwaukee only helped.
However, it would take time to bring Auburn back.
The talent still wasn't there. The attention to basketball still wasn't there, and it wouldn't be for a while. After all, Auburn, in the heart of the SEC, is primarily a football town.
Then, the first domino fell.
Danjel Purifoy, a four-star small forward, committed to the Tigers on Aug. 22, 2014. A couple of minutes after Pearl's show-cause penalty lifted on Aug. 25, Horace Spencer, a four-star power forward, did the same.
When the smoke cleared on the 2015 signing class, Auburn ended up with the No. 17 class in the nation — in basketball.
Pearl's first season captaining the ship went about as smoothly as expected. Auburn had trouble working out the kinks, and finished 13th in the SEC. But in the conference tournament, something clicked.
An opening-round win against Mississippi State gave the Tigers some much-needed momentum. A second win against Texas A&M opened some eyes. But the third game against fourth-seeded LSU is where the Tigers turned the corner.
K.T. Harrell's game-tying 3-pointer with a handful of seconds left sent the game into overtime, where an adrenaline-infused Auburn team dispatched LSU and gave them a date with undefeated No. 1 Kentucky.
Understandably, a well-rested Wildcat team stocked with NBA talent routed the Tigers, who were playing their fourth game in four days, ending an incredible run and a mesmerizing finish to Pearl's first season.
Now, midway through conference play in Pearl's second go-round, the pieces are beginning to come together.
Kareem Canty, who is leading the Tigers in scoring with 19 points per game, has settled into the playmaker role left vacant by Harrell.
He led all players in the game with 26 points, keying the furious comeback from 12 points down in the second half to snap the 16-year losing streak to Kentucky.
Another key cog in the wheel this season has been Tyler Harris, a graduate transfer from Providence University in New York. He chose Auburn because of Pearl, who coached Harris' brother Tobias — now a forward for the Orlando Magic — at the University of Tennessee.
Tyler, whose 21 points and 11 rebounds were instrumental in topping Kentucky, wanted to lay the foundation for greater things to come.
"That's one of the main reasons I wanted to come here, to have upsets like this," Harris said. "I always wanted to go to a place where we could win big, and I could help the program change around. I just look at this as a stepping stone for where we're trying to get to and what's to come."
That stepping stone has already begun to pay dividends.
Another highly ranked recruiting class waits in the wings for Pearl, and a pair of 2017 recruits are also on board, one of which is five-star center Austin Wiley, the son of former Auburn basketball players Aubrey Wiley and Vicki Orr Wiley.
Canty will have two years of eligibility remaining following the conclusion of this season, and if he chooses to stay at Auburn and not enter the NBA Draft, he will have a bevy of talent surrounding him.
To think one win could alter the direction of a program is difficult to believe. But when that win is as significant as the one Auburn secured on Saturday — one that marked the end of 18 consecutive losses to the same opponent, and one that also indicated the first win over a ranked opponent since 2012 — it might not be so far-fetched after all.
And then on Tuesday, Auburn topped Alabama, 83-77, snapping a three-game losing streak to the Crimson Tide and notching Pearl's first win over the Tigers' in-state rival since becoming head coach at Auburn.
Canty showcased his heroics once again, draining 7 of his 11 shots en route to a team-high 25 points, while Bowers turned in a career night with 20 points and 18 rebounds.
“This is a great rivalry. It’s a rivalry game,” Pearl said after the game. “It matters to Auburn family that we are able to be competitive in this rivalry. We did what we had to do.”
Two momentum-shifting wins—one over a national powerhouse and the other in a heated rivalry game—have greased the wheels on Auburn’s season, and the Tigers now sit above .500 on the year.
In two years, Pearl has brought Auburn basketball back from the dead.
Now, he’ll see what it looks like when the Tigers are really living.
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