When Bruce Pearl took over the Auburn job in 2014, few could have imagined what the Tigers’ program would soon blossom into – a perennial national powerhouse in college basketball.
When Pearl took over, Auburn was coming off its sixth consecutive losing season and had not reached the NCAA Tournament in more than a decade. The Tigers were an afterthought in the SEC, overshadowed by the school’s storied football program.
Something had to change on the hardwood.
Pearl arrived with an impressive background, having won a Division II national title at Southern Indiana. He was a two-time SEC Coach of the Year at Tennessee and had led his respective teams to 16 NCAA Tournament appearances over the years.
But taking over an Auburn program that was at an all-time low was no easy task.
From assembling a staff, to recruiting players that would even want to be a part of Auburn’s program, the rebuilding process would certainly be a daunting task, and Pearl knew that. He went 15-20 in his first year on the Plains, but there was something special about that team that laid the foundation for what was to come. His name was KT Harrell.
“My first year at Auburn, the team had one or two players that belonged to the SEC. KT belonged not only to the SEC, but he was an SEC All-Star. We didn't have that much to go around him, and our guys knew it. Our guys had, as you would expect, a very tough year during the regular season, but they never quit,” Pearl said.
Harrell – who was on Pearl's staff from 2020-22 as a graduate assistant – was sporting maize and blue on the sidelines of the Tigers’ Sweet 16 opponent, but nonetheless Harrell’s legacy will forever remain embedded into the Auburn basketball program.
“I so wanted KT's team my first year to be a part of that foundation, to be a part of what was going to happen, and I didn't think it was possible for them because we just weren't talented enough,” Pearl said. “ That first-year team, KT Harrell's team laid the groundwork for Auburn basketball in the future.”
It took three seasons for Pearl to break the .500 mark in orange and blue. In 2017-18 he led the Tigers to an SEC regular-season championship. In 2019, he shocked the college basketball world by doing the unthinkable at Auburn. Completely revamping the Tigers’ roster, Pearl and his staff took the Tigers to their first-ever Final Four. He followed it up by winning SEC Coach of the Year with another regular-season SEC championship in 2021-22. Pearl had built the program brick by brick and he wasn’t going to stop there.
Auburn was no longer just a football school. The Tigers had a legitimate basketball program that proved it could win on the big stage. But Pearl wasn’t satisfied with just one Final Four Appearance. After all, there’s one more game to win afterwards.
Fast forward to 2025, a season in which the Tigers were ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll for eight consecutive weeks, waltzed through a loaded field at the Maui Invitational to hoist the trophy in the end and won the SEC regular-season conference title outright in the conference’s most competitive year ever – all led by National Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome – Auburn will make its appearance in the programs second-ever Final Four.
After Auburn’s Elite Eight victory over No. 2 seed Michigan State, Pearl said:
“If you look at my staff, you'll notice that guys have been with me a long time. Steven Pearl's been with me his whole life. Steven has been on our staff for 11 years in lots of different ways. He could have left several times for head coaching positions, but he wanted to continue to help his father, and he stayed loyal to Auburn. Together we make a great team.
“Chad Prewett's been with me since we got the job. Mike Burgomaster came as a graduate assistant coach after being a manager at Miami, and I was able to -- he was able to demonstrate to me his knowledge and his feel for the offensive end. So we elevated Mike, got a chance to actually be an assistant coach last year. I think Mike's been with me for seven years. Ian Borders has been with me for six, seven, eight years.
“Mike Jeffrey started as a manager. He's now my Director of Basketball Operation, probably been with me eight or nine years. You don't see that continuity in staffs – Ira Bowman came from Penn. A guy from Jersey, probably come out to Auburn for a few years, get a couple good players. He hasn't left. He stayed here, raised his family here. Auburn is a special place. It is a very, very -- it is, it's a special place. I liked every place I've lived. I've never liked any place more than I've liked Auburn.”
When Pearl constructed his staff in 2014, his Director of Basketball Operations was a young kid from Columbia: Todd Golden. And that’s just who the Tigers will take the floor against in their coveted Final Four matchup on Saturday.
For Auburn, it’s time to etch itself as the best in the land. Nothing can take away from the Tigers’ historic season. But oh how sweet it would be for the Tigers to top it off with some net cutting at the Alamodome.
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Logan Fowler is a Senior from Sumiton, Alabama and is majoring in journalism. He joined the Plainsman in Spring 2024.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @loganffowler
