Legendary retired Auburn Tigers head basketball coach Bruce Pearl has made waves all month as an analyst for CBS Sports during March Madness broadcasts. His latest take on Hubert Davis deserving more loyalty from the North Carolina Tar Heels before his firing, and it somehow relating to why he's no longer coaching, certainly sounded like a veiled shot at the Auburn Tigers. Bruce clarified on Friday during an appearance on The Next Round Live that he was actually talking about the Tennessee Volunteers, though.
Fair. That makes a lot more sense. Had he left it there, Awful Announcing's Sam Neumann probably wouldn't have had a spicy take in response. Instead, though, Bruce made a media blackout list that he now refuses to engage with because they used "clickbait" in covering his response.
Neumann recognized the good points Bruce made while also lashing out at him for being the messenger for this message. Neumann also called out the alleged list, which he apparently made for reporting of his statement verbatim.
"The NIL era has genuinely changed the relationship between coaches, players, and programs in ways nobody saw coming when the floodgates opened, and you could make the argument that Hubert Davis — a player who gave everything to North Carolina before coming back to coach there — deserved more time than he got," Neumann wrote.
"These aren’t bad points. They’re real observations from someone who spent 30 years inside the profession, watching it twist itself into something unrecognizable. They just land a lot differently coming from a guy whose most prominent coaching exit happened right after he admitted to lying to NCAA investigators, and who responds to the completely predictable coverage of his own words on national television by announcing he’s keeping a list."
Bruce Pearl proving to be a stellar commentator
Pearl has the world hanging on every word. Certainly, Awful Announcing understands that Bruce is money, aggregating every soundbite he provides. To be fair, the hits have kept on coming during primetime NCAA Tournament broadcasts.
You have to hand it to Bruce. It's a genius move. And it's a family-first move that takes any heat off of Steven as his team attempts to win the NIT. Being so polarizingly against reality and vouching for AU to make the tournament, only to turn around and intentionally be vague about what he meant with a statement that could be taken as an insult to AU, becoming headline news in the process, makes Steven an afterthought. How can you be mad at him when he's keeping quiet and Bruce is taking hits?
And it also makes Bruce's handing off of a diminished product to Steven to focus on political activism and save his own legacy an afterthought. Everyone has to just keep addressing the new rage-bait and then follow Bruce's train of thought for every response.
This is beyond 4D chess at this point. Bruce is so unbelievably good at this.
That we care about what Bruce says means he's still an influential figure in this sport. While Coach K and Roy Williams faded away, Pearl is the most talked-about retired coach in the game. Whether he returns to coaching or takes on some prominent leadership position elsewhere, you have to hand it to Bruce for being a master of his new craft.