It has been exactly two years and three days since Bruce Pearl was hired as the head Men’s Basketball coach at Auburn University. After enjoying the ups and downs of those two years, I think it’s time I assign Pearl a grade for his time at Auburn so far.
There are a lot of things to take into consideration when it comes to grading his two years so far, but I’m going to be basing my grade off of three main things: recruiting, atmosphere, and on the court results.
Atmosphere: B
Auburn has had short spurts of basketball success, but aside from those few short spurts, basketball has almost been a secondary sport at Auburn in both fan support and on the court success.
The hiring of Bruce Pearl didn’t change that overnight, but it is very clear that Bruce Pearl has already brought excitement to the Plains. Even without the immediate on court success, Auburn has seen an incredible increase in student support at games and even the general public has showed up to pack out Auburn Arena for numerous big games.
As an avid basketball fan, it’s a little disappointing that the crowds only fill the Arena for big games and are often quite uninterested in the game a majority of the time, but at least tickets are being sold.
The actual support will continue to pile on as the play on the court improves, and Bruce Pearl knows that, but for the time being the atmosphere around Auburn basketball has been night and day compared to the days under Tony Barbee.
Results: C
Giving Bruce Pearl and Auburn a C for results is probably being slightly generous, but when considering the state that the program was in when Bruce Pearl took over, and the fact that several things went wrong in his second season, I feel this is the deserved grade.
I had much higher expectations for this past season like many others, but I can give Pearl and the team a pass for this season due to the circumstances. To some extent, Auburn should have won more games this season even with the injuries, and for that I will bump it down to a C, but to withstand all of the injuries, a tough schedule, and still get big wins over UAB, Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia is incredibly impressive.
After year one, with the excellent run in the SEC Tournament, I would have given Pearl and Auburn a B+ for results, but the disappointing 2015-2016 season just leaves a sour taste in my mouth and many others. I’m glad this season is in the past and that Auburn can really start to move forward next year and beyond.
Recruiting: A
Recruiting is where Bruce Pearl has really gotten a slam dunk at Auburn. In just the two years that Pearl has been at Auburn, he’s landed commitments and signatures from two 5-stars and seven 4-stars according to 247Sports.
Also according to 247Sports, nine of the top 14 recruits Auburn has ever landed have come under Pearl. This list goes as far back as 2003.
Yes, stars don’t mean everything when it comes to players on the court, but to land high caliber players like Bruce Pearl has done by pitching almost his name and future goals alone, is extremely impressive.
This season we saw how good Horace Spencer and Bryce Brown have the ability to be, and they will continue to develop under Pearl and his staff.
This upcoming season Auburn will get to finally see Danjel Purifoy, Mustapha Heron, Jared Harper, and other players that Bruce will likely bring in over the course of the next few months.
Bruce Pearl has the name and reputation to bring big players to Auburn and he’s assembled a staff that has done a fantastic job on the recruiting trail, and each class in the future appears to be better and better.
Rebuilding a basketball program doesn’t happen over night, but Bruce Pearl is doing just about everything you can do in the first few years as recruiting in concerned.
The only thing that keeps this at an A as opposed to an A+ is the slight reliance on JUCO players and transfers, but that’s something that just has to be done when you’re attempting to pull a program out of the ground.
Overall: B
All in all, the results on the court haven’t been quite what I expected in two years, but I haven’t doubted the future one bit. It’s discouraging to see a few issues in the locker room, but it’s also nice to see Bruce Pearl handle them to the best of his abilities and supposedly move past them.
As I’ve been saying, assuming Auburn doesn’t have a ton of freak injuries next season, the players and talent are there to dramatically improve the on court results of Auburn Basketball.
Not many coaches would be up to the challenge of turning around Auburn or any program in as bad of shape, but Bruce Pearl was gracious of a second chance and is doing great things so far with better things to come.