Auburn's Final Four loss to Florida on Saturday likely means the Tigers' basketball program won't be making any major changes anytime soon. In other words, Bruce Pearl isn't moving on and handing the team to his son, Steven, until more business is settled.
Bruce is Auburn's winningest coach in program history. He's helped the Tigers become a viable NIL player in the SEC despite having a donor base whose primary focus has historically been the football team.
If Bruce wanted to move on to a historically dominant program, an Auburn title would've empowered fans to embrace losing their 65-year-old program builder. Until that goal is reached, Bruce will stick around, barring a sudden and unexpected retirement.
Auburn assistant basketball coach Steven Pearl is next up after Bruce
Make no mistake about it: Steven is in-waiting. The momentum for his eventual takeover has already begun.
The Athletic's Joe Rexrode implied the Pearls could be like the Meyers, Bennetts, and Drews family dynasties.
"And though nepotism naturally invites questions about the competence of the person with access to a coveted situation simply through blood ties, the questions have changed over the course of the best stretch in Auburn men’s basketball history," Rexrode wrote. "As the No. 1 overall seed Tigers prepare to take on No. 5 seed Michigan in the South Regional semifinals on Friday in Atlanta, then perhaps No. 2 seed Michigan State or No. 6 seed Ole Miss with a trip to the Final Four on the line, they go like this:
"How much of this program’s success can be traced specifically to the work of Steven Pearl?
"Should he be the one to take it over when his 65-year-old father eventually decides to retire?
"There’s no coach-in-waiting designation from Auburn at this point, but it’s possible the Pearls could be like the Meyers, the Bennetts, the Drews and others in being granted a father-to-son succession plan. Once Vito Corleone had to relent and let Michael run the family business, he put him in the best possible spot to succeed."
If/when Bruce wins that elusive first championship with the Tigers, Steven's time will come.
That time isn't now, though, as Auburn regroups from an all-time season that lacked an all-time conclusion.