If Auburn and athletic director John Cohen could have learned from anyone how to handle a head basketball coach retiring suddenly right before the season, it would be Virginia and its athletic director, Carla Williams.
On Oct. 18, 2024, longtime Cavaliers’ head coach Tony Bennett abruptly stepped down, stating he could no longer go all-in as the landscape of college athletics continued to change with NIL and the transfer portal. He had led the Wahoos to the 2019 national title (much to the chagrin of Auburn fans everywhere after the double-dribble controversy in the Tigers’ semifinal loss to UVA) and was one of the top coaches in the sport.
Williams didn’t panic, giving associate head coach Ron Sanchez the interim head coaching role for the 2024-25 season. Under his guidance, the Cavaliers struggled, finishing 15-17 and 8-12, and missing the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in 11 tries.Â
Seeing that the Sanchez experiment wouldn’t work, Williams went out and hired one of the top young head coaches in basketball: Ryan Odom from VCU. In his first season in Charlottesville, the 51-year-old Odom has led UVA to a 27-4 record and 15-3 in ACC play.
He had head coaching experience – 10 years, in fact, including leading Maryland-Baltimore County to the first-ever No. 16 seed win in the NCAA Tournament in 2018 against, yes, UVA – and was certainly a top name among many schools hiring.
Auburn should've copied what Virginia did following Tony Bennett's sudden resignation
When Bruce Pearl retired in October 2025, the entire Auburn athletic department got played , as it was determined that Steven Pearl, his father’s longtime assistant with no head-coaching experience, would take over a program coming off a Final Four appearance. Only 36 years old, Pearl was ready for a head coaching job, but not precisely one at a school that his father had helped build into a contender. In a weird move that might set back the basketball program for some time, instead of giving the younger Pearl an interim tag to see if he could prove himself, Auburn handed him a five-year contract that pays him a base of $3 million a year.
How did that work out for Auburn? Not great. Unless the Tigers go on a deep run in Nashville starting on Wednesday in the SEC Tournament, Auburn will not hear its name called on Selection Sunday. The younger Pearl has had to learn on the ropes, and it seemed at times that every news coming out of the team was bad. There were suspensions, players being late, players being disrespectful to Pearl himself, and other issues that come with a substitute teacher taking over a third-grade classroom.
Most of all, and this isn’t just an opinion but things heard throughout the Plains, this team wasn’t fun to watch or easy to get behind. A complete overhaul of the roster after last year’s SEC title and Final Four run didn’t help, but Cohen and the powers that be did no favors when handing the keys to the younger Pearl with no plan otherwise.
There’s still time for Steven to prove he is capable of being a head coach at a major college program. Unfortunately, Auburn is stuck as he tries to figure it out.Â