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Were You Blocked By Tony Barbee on Twitter Today? Probably.

By Nicholas Ian Allen

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Former Auburn basketball coach Tony Barbee was a hot topic of conversation on Twitter among Tigers fans, and the Kentucky assistant didn’t care for it.

Perhaps that’s because it was one year ago today that Barbee was fired by Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs following a disappointing 74-56 loss to South Carolina in the SEC Tournament that capped Barbee’s 49-75 record in four seasons. Oh, and also because the Tigers did something yesterday they didn’t do in the four seasons Barbee coached at Auburn: win a game in the SEC Tournament.

So, as Auburn basketball fans across the nation reminisced about Barbee’s tenure, Barbee blocked them on Twitter.

“After careful evaluation of the last four years, I feel this is best for the program,” Jacobs said one year ago. “I believe we should compete for championships in men’s basketball. It’s time for somebody else to have a turn. We need to find somebody to come in here and take what we have here now and put some more in and compete for SEC titles.”

That someone and somebody is Bruce Pearl. The best available head coaching prospect in the nation after last season. There’s a lot of work yet to be done, but the Auburn family is more optimistic about basketball than they have been in a long time.

While Pearl isn’t a miracle worker – he has led the Tigers to a 13-19 record this season and a 4-14 mark in SEC play, which is obviously a worse record than Barbee had when he was canned a year ago – there’s no question that Pearl has the Auburn basketball program headed in the right direction.

The Tigers played a much tougher schedule in Pearl’s first season with a smaller roster and shorter bench. Pearl has also put together a recruiting class ranked 12th in the nation and third in the SEC by 247Sports – a higher rated class than any Barbee put together on the Plains. And of course, Pearl is also currently 1-0 in the SEC Tournament with the Tigers, while Barbee was 0-4.

Tony Barbee may feel like he’s got the last laugh. Once the 2014-15 season ends, the Auburn Tigers will have 20 losses and he will probably win a national championship ring as a special assistant to the head coach for John Calipari’s undefeated Kentucky Wildcats.

He may even put himself in the running to be a head coach again someday. And when some poor school decides to give him another chance to lead his very own college basketball program, you may even decide to send @CoachTonyBarbee a congratulatory tweet.

And he’ll probably block you. If he hasn’t already.

Next: Will Muschamp, New Auburn Defense 101

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