Just over two days until Auburn will tip off in its second ever Final Four game, the Tigers’ head coach Bruce Pearl took to the podium to break down the rematch with Florida as well as discuss his relationship with Gators’ head coach Todd Golden.
Below is everything Pearl said in San Antonio, TX ahead of the Final Four matchup with Florida.
Opening Statement:
“We're excited about being back at the Final Four. You don't know that you're ever going to get there once in your career, so you feel incredibly blessed and grateful to have a second opportunity.
“Proud of our team for playing probably the most ambitious non-conference schedule we've ever played, and then have to go through the grind of playing in what was the best conference in college men's basketball in history of the NCAA.
“To be able to come out of that as a regular-season champion was quite an accomplishment. The question then was, Is there any more step up in your game? 'Cause that's what you have to do in March.
“I thought that through the Creighton, Michigan, Michigan State games, we demonstrated that we had more in the tank.”
On giving Todd Golden one of his first jobs in coaching:
“Here is the thing. I didn't give him his start. He actually got his start at Columbia with Coach Smith, who is a huge, huge part of his coaching tree and family and everything like that. But I did give him his first shot at the Power Five.
“What is significant about it is I'd been out of coaching for three years. When I was getting back into coaching, I was putting my staff together. I brought my son Steven, I brought Todd, a couple other guys I really trusted. I think that meant a lot to Todd. Todd recognized how close I was to my coaches, how much I relied on my coaches, how much I expected of my coaches, and the bar that we set about the way they behaved, the way they taught, the way they carried themselves.
“Even though I only had Todd for two years, he helped lay the foundation, helped getting some of the recruiting started that helped us in our fourth year. Todd and Megan had just gotten married. They were newlyweds. They had their first son while he was at Auburn. I was one of the first to hold his son. There's a close connection.
“All the while he becomes best friends with his fellow assistant, Steven Pearl. The relationship has lasted.”
On taking the underdog role at the Final Four:
“What I've tried to do all year long is demonstrate that this is unchartered waters for Auburn men's basketball. We had some great moments in our history, great coaches, Sonny Smith and Cliff Ellis, great players in Charles Barkley and Chuck Person and several others. No real sustained great, great success.
“Here we are at the Final Four. Like Houston has won national championships. They have history with Guy Lewis. They've been here before. Duke, that story has been over and over again, right? Billy Donovan took Florida here, won a couple national championships. Florida has more history.
“We come in as the overall No. 1, but we're probably considered the fourth best team here right now. There is nothing new. I prefer the underdog role rather than having to prove that we're as good as we say we are.
“So we're going to take that underdog role into the Final Four and see if we can capitalize on it.”
On being one of the older coaches in this year’s Final Four:
“You know, the only way I look at it is, Kelvin and I have fewer chances to get to where we are right now, whereas Jon Scheyer and Todd Golden will be back here many more times.
“Kelvin and I better take advantage of it this time 'cause we're clearly on the back nine. I'm not on the 18th hole yet, but we're getting closer.
“No, Todd and Jon don't give up anything in experience. They just give up a little bit, and they don't have as much gray hair. They may not have been beat down as much as Kelvin and I have been over the years.”
On the first matchup with Florida:
“I thought Florida outplayed us. I mean, I thought it was a Florida win rather than Auburn loss. I did feel at the time that we had some fatigue that was sort of setting in a little bit. We really hadn't had much of a grind point. We had won there at the Florida game, and we may have won after we won the SEC Championship at Rupp.
“Florida won the game and controlled. We got off to a really good start, but they won the game the way they've been winning game, banged 13 threes, had 22 assists, their front line played with tremendous physicality and outplayed us. If that's the case, they're going to beat us again. They scored 90. So their depth I think was a factor.
“So, yeah, we recognize that there are a number of things that we didn't do that they did that we're going to have to fix this time around if we're going to have a chance to beat them.
“Again, Clayton can't be the best player on the floor again for us to win the game.”
Update on Johni Broome’s health:
“I'm glad he feels that way. Today was the first day he moved in practice. I was glad to see him. Obviously good to see him out there. And the one thing Johni Broome showed in this NCAA tournament, that there was another level, there was another gear.
“Everybody keeps watching him and wondering when is he going to fizzle, when is he going to not show up. Again, he just managed to step up.
“He was 10-13 against Michigan State. Florida recognizes that. Florida's bigs are a little bigger and more athletic than Michigan State's or Michigan's bigs. But Johni was MVP of the south region. We rode him hard. We're going to ride him hard again on Saturday.”
On what Auburn has learned since the first Florida game:
“I think when you go through the grind of the SEC, that it's really hard to have it every night. I think Florida had it that night. I do. Played great. Now, look, we maybe didn't. I've been saying since prior to the Florida game, I think Florida's playing the best basketball of anybody in the country. I've said it publicly a dozen times.
“Is that a slap in the face to Duke or to Houston or to my Auburn team? No, it's not. But that's how I have felt. Does that mean we can't beat them? Of course not. I felt that way going into the game. And then in the game they showed us that. They were better than us. We were the No. 1 team in the country. I don't know that we've improved that much. Maybe we know a little bit more of who we are and what we have to do in order to win that game, the things we didn't do the first time.”
On Florida’s bigs and their physicality:
“I think in a sense we stepped up with our physicality, we competed very well on the boards, been really good on the offensive glass. We've been able to win those matchups in four games.
“This is what Florida's strength is. They're plus 12.5 rebound margin right now. They have five bigs that they rotate. Right now we're rotating three. Depth is usually a strength of mine. We typically, in my career, played nine, 10 guys double-digit minutes. We're really only playing seven, maybe eight.
“The length of the timeouts, the extra five minutes at halftime, gives a team with a little less depth an opportunity to maybe get a little bit more rest. But obviously what takes its toll are the number of bodies they're going to put on our leading scorer in Johni Broome. They know it. We know it. He knows it. We're ready for it.”
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Patrick is a junior from Auburn, Alabama, double majoring in journalism and marketing. He started with The Plainsman in the fall of 2022.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @patrickabingham
