Bruce Pearl needs to know when not to say the silent part out loud.
Speaking to Dan Dakich on Wednesday, the former Auburn head basketball coach said what everyone had been thinking since he suddenly retired, leaving his son, Steven, in charge of the Tigers’ basketball program.
“Did I help my son get the (Auburn) job, nepotism? Of course, I did,” Pearl said.
That nepotism left Auburn’s athletic department, athletic director John Cohen and this year’s roster in a bad spot as he retired on the first day of practice, and basically gave the job to his son, who, while learning the trade under his father at Auburn, had never been a head coach at any level in college basketball.
The season has gone exactly how you thought it would go, with the Tigers hanging onto their NCAA Tournament hopes by a slim thread, while the younger Pearl has had to deal with player discipline issues and bad losses that have peppered the entire schedule for Auburn this season. It wasn’t that Steven wasn’t ready for a head coaching job, but how it went down, to a program that his father had built into a power, that has many questioning Pearl’s motives.
Bruce Pearl's comments continues to put his son in a bad position
Of course, it doesn’t stop with the nepotism. When asked about his comment concerning Auburn making the NCAA Tournament and downplaying the achievements of Miami (Ohio) this season, Pearl had this to say.
“Am I rooting for my son to make the NCAA Tournament? Of course I am,” he said.
While it is understandable to cheer for your son (who wouldn’t?), when you have a national platform to say what you say, maybe the former head coach needs to be a bit more objective, or his time on TV will start to get smaller.