Bruce Pearl stepped down as the head coach of Auburn basketball before the season, leaving the team in the hands of his son. The first season under Steven Pearl did not end the way they had hoped. Auburn was left out of the NCAA tournament, as Miami (OH) got a bid.
Now, the former Auburn coach is working for the media and is giving his thoughts on Auburn being left out, per Awful Announcing.
“Auburn beat three champions this year. They beat Florida, they beat St. John’s, and they beat Arkansas. They played the toughest schedule in the country, don’t know if they were rewarded for it,” Pearl said. “It’s hard to get another couple of SEC teams in when the SEC already has ten.”
These comments were made on the CBS show for Selection Sunday. While Pearl railed that Auburn should have been in the tournament, his colleague Clark Kellogg shot it down.
“Yeah, and I think the losses- we’ve not had a team one [game] over .500 overall make the field as an at-large,” Pearl’s colleague Clark Kellogg replied. “We’ve had a couple that were two over .500, and they had a similar strength of schedule. So I think it was just the accumulation of losses that negated some of the big big wins that Auburn had, because the first criteria is wins and losses, and I think that ultimately did Auburn in.”
Still, Pearly believes they belonged in the tournament over SMU.
“There’s no question, you either got to win your way in, or lose your way out,” Pearl continued. “For me I always say, ‘Okay, we’re going to put one in, who would you take out?’ For me, SMU with a 191 out-of-conference strength of schedule. I don’t know if they should’ve been rewarded. They only won five games away from home. And for me, it would’ve been either Oklahoma or Auburn taking that last spot.”
Auburn ended as the secon team out of the tournament, just behind Oklahoma. As their season ends without a berth in the NCAA tournament, the first four are set for Tuesday, with the first game being between Texas and NC State.
