A decade of history: How Pearl led Auburn to unprecedented era of success

On March 18, 2014, Bruce Pearl stepped off the plane at Auburn University Regional Airport for the first time as the head coach of the Auburn Tigers. Five NCAA Tournament bids, two SEC regular-season championships, two SEC Tournament titles, a Final Four appearance and 200 wins later, the 10th anniversary of Pearl’s hiring arrived on March 18, 2024.

Only two men’s basketball coaches stand ahead of Pearl in all-time wins at Auburn – Joel Eaves and Cliff Ellis. Only Sonny Smith took the Tigers to as many NCAA Tournaments as Pearl. The Tigers’ 24 weeks inside the top 10 of the AP Poll under Pearl are the most by an Auburn coach.

For all the success Pearl has had on the Plains, his tenure at Auburn started out with humble beginnings as he began his rebuild of the struggling program.

“People that know me know that I do care about history, know that I do care about Auburn being an everything school, and I do care about the fact that in men's basketball, we just weren't competitive,” Pearl said. “And I knew that Auburn was enjoying so much success in so many other places that I felt like we could, and I feel grateful and blessed that we are.”

When Pearl was hired in 2014, he inherited a program that had not made the NCAA Tournament in 10 seasons. Many Auburn fans at the time were apathetic towards the men’s basketball program as the team continually finished near the bottom of the SEC standings. In the 2013-14 season, the year before Pearl arrived, Auburn Arena averaged over 3,000 empty seats per game.

One of Pearl’s first objectives was to change the fans’ mindset about the program – his program. He went around campus, sitting in a dunk tank for charity, handing out food to students studying in the library and walking into lecture halls to promote his team’s inaugural “Pearl Jam” scrimmage before he coached a game.

“I recognized that to win championships, you’ve got to win at home and you’ve got to win some on the road that you’re not supposed to win. And to do that you got to create a following,” Pearl said. “What happened first, the chicken or the egg? When teams are winning, fans are coming out. Here at Auburn, the fans came out to help us win.”

The result of Pearl’s promotion was clear: in his first season, the program averaged over 2,000 more fans than the previous year. The effort Pearl put forth into getting fans excited about men’s basketball was not lost on his players. 

“It’s come such a long way, but I remember him just doing everything he could to just bring awareness to the men's basketball team,” said KT Harrell, a guard on Pearl’s first Auburn team. “So obviously where it is now, he deserves a lot of credit. Just what he's been able to build there.”

Not only was Pearl promoting his own program, he was making an impact in the community, especially with causes near to his heart. 

“I feel like God has blessed us,” Pearl said. “And I feel it in so many ways. He's blessed us to give us this platform to be on and then it's not just to win more games, it's to serve. And so whether it be Bruce Pearl for the Children to benefit Children's Harbor, or the Bruce Pearl Family Foundation sponsoring out live to help people outlive their cancer.”

The annual AUTLIVE game at Neville Arena benefits many different cancer treatment centers across Alabama. In addition, the Bruce Pearl Family Foundation assists families who are impacted by illness. Pearl’s impact, long before any NCAA Tournaments or SEC championships, was being felt in a big way in Auburn and around the state of Alabama.

“Over the last two years, just the last two years alone, we've given away over half a million dollars to patients in the state of Alabama who are battling cancer and can't afford their copay are having a hard time paying a mortgage because they've had to miss some work because they're sick from the chemo. And, it's a great awareness campaign,” Pearl said.

In Pearl’s first two seasons, his teams earned home wins over NCAA Tournament teams like Xavier in 2014 and Kentucky in January 2016 – the Tigers’ first win over the Wildcats since 2000. Additionally, Pearl’s team won three games in three days to advance to the SEC Tournament semifinals as a No. 13 seed in 2015, providing a glimpse of what was to come for Pearl’s program.

Though each of Pearl’s first two teams finished with losing records, Pearl has often credited those initial squads for laying the foundation for the success to come. Harrell noted that the praise from Pearl was not just words, but actions.

“He did an amazing job of making me and my teammates feel like we were the foundation,” Harrell said. “If he talks about his first team, he always mentions it…He still does talk about that first team, so it was something special to be a part of.”

Following the renewed fan interest in his program, Pearl began to attract top talent to the Plains. It began with 5-star center and Auburn legacy Austin Wiley, who turned down other schools to follow in his parents’ footsteps and play for Auburn. Pearl gave Wiley much credit for coming to the Plains, igniting an era of recruiting success for the Tigers.

In the same class as Wiley was 5-star small forward Mustapha Heron, who was Auburn’s highest-rated recruit ever at the time, according to 247Sports. Despite Auburn not having a player taken in the NBA Draft since 2001, highly-rated prospects were investing in Pearl’s vision for his program.

“You absolutely cannot tell the story without giving Austin Wiley, Aubrey Wiley and Vicki Orr credit for Austin choosing Auburn in the two years before high school graduation,” Pearl said. “He was born to be an Auburn Tiger, but our program was so down that he, probably to be a pro, would have probably needed to go elsewhere to a national program. Austin Wiley chose to be an Auburn man, and he was the original Pied Piper. And then I was able to get a guy like Mustapha and some of the other great recruits.”

Now, Heron is the Tigers’ sixth-rated recruit of all time, as Pearl has landed six 5-star recruits and 17 4-star players in his time at Auburn. Following 18 years without a player drafted, Chuma Okeke became Pearl’s first Auburn player taken in the draft when the Orlando Magic selected him with the 16th overall pick in 2019.

“I feel like (playing at Auburn) prepared me (for the NBA) just by the physicality that comes with playing in the SEC,” Okeke said. “Of course, NBA is a lot stronger, but I feel like that's probably the closest you get to it playing NBA basketball, playing in the SEC. And the way (Pearl) just teaches the game, too.”

Okeke was the first of six Auburn players taken in the NBA Draft from 2019-23, including lottery picks Isaac Okoro and Jabari Smith Jr. and NBA All-Rookie team member Walker Kessler. The 2021 NBA Draft saw two Tigers selected in the second round, JT Thor and Sharife Cooper.

“Looking back to where I came in at to where they're at now, the level of talent that they get now is outstanding,” said Anfernee McLemore, a forward for the Tigers from 2016-20. “And I was happy to be a part of it.”

After three years of rebuilding the Tigers, Pearl returned success to Auburn men’s basketball in a big way in his fourth season. After eight straight seasons of finishing in the bottom five of the SEC from 2010-17, Auburn won the conference in 2018 – a meteoric rise for a program that was an SEC afterthought for many years before. 

That 2018 team made the NCAA Tournament, the first time Auburn had done so since 2003, and earned Pearl’s first March Madness win at Auburn with a 62-58 victory over the College of Charleston.

The 2018-19 team saw the Tigers go where no Auburn team had gone before. The Tigers’ momentum started at the end of the regular season, as the Tigers rattled off four straight wins, including a victory over No. 5 Tennessee on Senior Day. It continued into the SEC Tournament, where Auburn won four games in four days to win the event for the second time ever and the first since 1985. 

Then, the gauntlet of the NCAA Tournament came for Auburn. And it was no ordinary gauntlet as Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky – and their combined 17 national championships at the time – awaited the Tigers if they could get past 30-win New Mexico State in the first round.

The Tigers survived New Mexico State, then knocked off the blue bloods one by one, beating Kansas by 14, North Carolina by 17 and Kentucky in overtime to advance to the program’s first-ever Final Four in Pearl’s fifth season at Auburn and second tournament appearance.

“I said, ‘Hey, you couldn't ask, you know, for God, to give us a better opportunity to make history. Like he actually put this in front of us,’” Pearl said. “And then he lifted us up and carried us all the way through. It was his plan.” 

Pearl’s program never looked back from the first few years of success and the Tigers, six seasons after winning their first SEC championship under Pearl, have sustained the success that began with the 2017-18 team.

“It's too early to tell, but the fact that the league has never been better, and we're still in position to compete for the championship is a compliment to our staff,” Pearl said. “Here's the other thing too: the continuity of my staff. Most of the guys that were at the Final Four are still here. And I have I have several key pieces of this program including my son Steven or Chad Prewett that have been here from day one.”

What would have been Auburn’s third straight March Madness appearance, something it had not achieved since 1986-88 did not happen due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pearl and the Tigers eventually accomplished that with three straight appearances from 2022-24.

After the pandemic subsided, Pearl’s team continued to make history. The 2021-22 Tigers became the first Auburn team to ever reach the No. 1 ranking when they did so on Jan. 24, 2022. That team delivered Pearl’s second SEC regular-season championship at Auburn – the Tigers had two in the 82 years of the SEC before Pearl arrived. 

The history kept coming after the season was over, as Smith and Kessler were each picked in the first round of the NBA Draft – the first time Auburn had two players picked in the first round of a draft.

Jaylin Williams, whose first season at Auburn was in 2019-20, was a part of five of Pearl’s 10 Auburn teams. After playing behind veterans and NBA Draft picks in his first few years, Williams stayed loyal to the Tigers throughout his collegiate career. Over his time on the Plains, Williams heard Pearl mention history countless times.

“That’s like every day,” Williams said. “He’ll write on the board 'making history.' There’s always something in the locker room talking about making history, like on the wall, but he emphasizes that almost every day. And then he just tells us it's up to us to if we want to make that.”

Having played for Pearl for five seasons during the Tigers’ run of success, Williams made history of his own when he became Auburn’s all-time winningest player, picking up his 88th win on Nov. 10, 2023.

“It’s great. I didn't ever think that would be something that I'll be proud of or something that I would accomplish here at Auburn,” Williams said. “If I was a little kid and you told me I'd be the winningest player at Auburn, I wouldn’t believe you…”

With two SEC regular-season titles and two SEC Tournament championships already secured in Pearl’s tenure, the Tigers have become relevant on the national scene.

“If you're good enough to be competitive in the SEC, you're good enough to win a national championship,” Pearl said. “So if you focus on the league and what you’ve got to do to beat the best teams in the league, and that's what our focus was. If you can do that, well, then you can go to the NCAA Tournament and beat anybody. And we've obviously proven that.”

The reputation of Auburn’s men’s basketball program has changed dramatically from where it was just 10 years ago. Now a consistent contender in the SEC, the Tigers look to continue making history throughout Pearl’s time on the Plains and beyond.

This article is also available in our "People" print edition.