One of the biggest stories of the college basketball offseason came in September when Bruce Pearl stepped down as Auburn's head coach after 11 seasons, leaving his son, Steven, in charge of a program coming off an SEC regular-season title and a trip to the Final Four.
While the younger Pearl has been preparing for his first day as a head coach, no one is sure how the experiment will go after his father brought so much success to the Tigers.
The people over at Busting Brackets definitely don't know how it will work out, as they tried to rank the 365 D-1 head coaches going into the season. Pearl comes in at No. 231, not bad for someone with no experience thus far. It's when you get to the meat of the SEC coaches that it becomes more interesting who is ranked higher than the other.
Todd Golden, fresh off leading Florida to a national championship, is somehow behind Alabama's Nate Oats, while Arkansas' John Calipari, who was run out of Lexington before last season, comes in at No. 3 overall.
Here is what the site had to say about Pearl, along with all 16 SEC head coaches' ranks.
231. Steven Pearl (Auburn) (Last year: N/A)
Overall record: 0-0
The surprising offseason move at Auburn thrust Pearl into the head coaching chair after his father’s retirement. It’s his first chance as a head coach at any level after playing under his father with Tennessee before joining the Auburn staff over a decade ago. Pearl worked his way up from a staffer to assistant to associate head coach and was a valuable part of Auburn’s growth over the last decade. How does the 38-year old handle running the program himself?
102. Lamont Paris (South Carolina) (Last year: 72)
89. Bucky McMillan (Texas A&M) (Last year: 139)
88. Matt McMahon (LSU) (Last year: 75)
66. Dennis Gates (Missouri) (Last year: 102)
59. Porter Moser (Oklahoma) (Last year: 63)
51. Mark Byington (Vanderbilt) (Last year: 80)
44. Mike White (Georgia) (Last year: 60)
37. Chris Jans (Mississippi State) (Last year: 40)
34. Mark Pope (Kentucky) (Last year: 52)
18. Chris Beard (Ole Miss) (Last year: 25)
15. Sean Miller (Texas) (Last year: 24)
12. Todd Golden (Florida) (Last year: 71)
11. Nate Oats (Alabama) (Last year: 10)
9. Rick Barnes (Tennessee) (Last year: 9)
3. John Calipari (Arkansas) (Last year: 4)