Bruce Pearl Discussion

[AUpocalypse 12]

What are the chances that Jay Jacobs has already talked to Bruce Pearl about taking being named Auburn's basketaball coach after we get knocked out of the SEC dance and he's agreed.

You have a better chance of signing up for Warren Buffet's bracket challenge tomorrow and winning it three times with three different brackets.

[AU64 10,122]

What are the chances that Jay Jacobs has already talked to Bruce Pearl about taking being named Auburn's basketaball coach after we get knocked out of the SEC dance and he's agreed.

You have a better chance of signing up for Warren Buffet's bracket challenge tomorrow and winning it three times with three different brackets.

Sounds about right.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

I can still hope.

[AU_Tiger_88 417]

What are the chances that Jay Jacobs has already talked to Bruce Pearl about taking being named Auburn's basketaball coach after we get knocked out of the SEC dance and he's agreed.

You have a better chance of signing up for Warren Buffet's bracket challenge tomorrow and winning it three times with three different brackets.

So your saying there is still a shot !!!

[AUpocalypse 12]

What are the chances that Jay Jacobs has already talked to Bruce Pearl about taking being named Auburn's basketaball coach after we get knocked out of the SEC dance and he's agreed.

You have a better chance of signing up for Warren Buffet's bracket challenge tomorrow and winning it three times with three different brackets.

So your saying there is still a shot !!!

If you happen to own a Universal Parallecular Space&Time Continuum Manacler, some ESP, and maybe Dr. Who's cell number..

there might be a chance!

You meant winning the bracket challenge thrice and trifold, right?

[AU_Tiger_88 417]

What are the chances that Jay Jacobs has already talked to Bruce Pearl about taking being named Auburn's basketaball coach after we get knocked out of the SEC dance and he's agreed.

You have a better chance of signing up for Warren Buffet's bracket challenge tomorrow and winning it three times with three different brackets.

So your saying there is still a shot !!!

If you happen to own a Universal Parallecular Space&Time Continuum Manacler, some ESP, and maybe Dr. Who's cell number..

there might be a chance!

You meant winning the bracket challenge thrice and trifold, right?

Shouldn't be a problem winning the Buffet challenge...his bracket is Tic-Tac-Toe!!

[scottiep 0]

Pearl has been in trouble everywhere he's stopped, it's not a one time thing with him. I don't care where he goes as long as it's not Auburn.

I must've missed the issues he had at Wisconsin-Milw.

Amazing how sanctimonious some can be. He is not without his issues, but as others have mentioned, CCE had NCAA issues at his prior two stops, but that didn't stop us.

It is true that early in his career, he blew the whistle on another program, but that was a long time ago, and I imagine he has learned and payed the price for it.

As for money, that would not be a factor in him coming to Auburn--he didn't make $3 mil at UT as someone else said. You can almost count on 1 hand the number of coaches that make that kind of cheddar.

Simply put, he's the best coach available for AU. But as such, he'll have plenty of better opportunities and I suspect he'll take one of them, while we end up with a Sun Belt coach.

WDE!

[Mikey 16,569]

Amazing how sanctimonious some can be. He is not without his issues, but as others have mentioned, CCE had NCAA issues at his prior two stops, but that didn't stop us.

No but it should have. Look where hiring him got us. That would be right back in NCAA trouble.

Simply put, he's the best coach available for AU. But as such, he'll have plenty of better opportunities and I suspect he'll take one of them, while we end up with a Sun Belt coach.

WDE!

And that's a good thing. Better a Sun Belt coach than Pearl.

[AuburnNTexas 7,137]

It really doesn't matter if we get a Sunbelt coach or a name coach it matters if that coach will realize both Auburns strengths and weaknesses and then recruit the type of player that will slowly help us turn around.

Strengths: New Arena, Name recognition, beautiful Campus, great education, some great players in the past, training facilities,enough money to support the program.

Weaknesses: Football school first, Not a Big City School, Under Amour, no recent history of basketball greatness.

Even though we are a football school name recognition is name recognition it helps you get your foot in the door, the new Arena, the training facilities. beautiful campus, friendly students help when a recruit visits. Ask some of the great players of the past to visit campus during recruiting visits. Accept the fact that until you have a tradition of winning that you are not going to recruit a lot of the top players. The state of Alabama produces players who do well at out of state schools and at schools like UAB. Recruit the state harder while the AAU teams have a lot to do with recruiting don't forget the High School coaches they can be your ace in the whole.

Recruit kids who will buy into a system and stay with it for 4 years like Schools like Butler do. If you can build the base and start winning then more doors open to you. This approach takes time but it can work.

When you interview coaches you should ask them to honestly tell you what are the strengths and weaknesses of trying to coach and recruit basketball at Auburn and how they will overcome the obstacles. If you decide to go with a coach who has been around for a while you need to see if the coach has shown the ability to modify his system from year to year based around the skill set of the players he has at the time.

[AUIH1 1,515]

I say hire Pearl. AU basketball is only marginally competitive if we have a coach who is willing to bend/stretch every rule to its max and break a few along the way. AU basketball has legitimate barriers (UA, Komara, lack of basketball IQ from our AD) standing in its way. However; there is no doubt in my mind, we could hire someone that even with all of those barriers, that could put a better product on the floor than what Barbee has done.

wde

[AUdmd07 2]

UA contract has been and always will be a weak excuse. When you list out potential barriers/ disadvantages that Auburn has UA shouldn't be near the top if on the list at all. Coaching, development, and player retention have been major problems since Ellis was fired and have been magnified under CTB.

[AUIH1 1,515]

UA contract has been and always will be a weak excuse. When you list out potential barriers/ disadvantages that Auburn has UA shouldn't be near the top if on the list at all. Coaching, development, and player retention have been major problems since Ellis was fired and have been magnified under CTB.

See below a post from one of the more level headed basketball posters on the ITAT basketball board showing the records of UA schools to date. Again, I am not a fan of Barbee and would support him being replaced, but I do believe the UA contract is one of the problems (along with poor coaching and player evaluation/development) that are hurting the basketball program.

Updated through 3/2/14

Conference record; overall record; position in conference

SEC

AU 5-11; 13-14; tied 12 of 14

USCe 4-11; 11-18; 13 of 14

ACC

Maryland 7-9; 15-14; T8 of 15

Boston College 4-12; 8-21; T13 of 15

American

South FL 3-13; 12-17; T8 of 10

Temple 2-14; 7-21; 10 of 10

Missouri Valley

Southern Illinois 9-9; 13-18; T4 of 10

Big 10

Northwestern 5-11; 12-17; Tlast

Pac 12

Utah 8-8; 19-9; T7 of 12

Big 12

Texas Tech 5-11; 13-16; 9 of 10

Atlantic 10

LaSalle 6-8; 14-14; 8 of 13

Southland

Lamar 2-14; 3-259; 14 of 14

Big Sky

Montana St 9-8; 14-14; 6 of 11

America East

UMBC 5-11; 9-20; 6 of 9

Summit League

South Dakota St 10-4; 18-11; 2 of 8

Colonial Athletic Association

Towson 13-3; 22-9; 2 of 9

Patriot League

Loyola (MD) 6-12; 11-18; T7 of 10

As previously stated Colorado St and St Johns are in year 1 for hoops as UA teams. Notre Dame switched during the first few weeks of the hoops season. I am including them with an asterik since they haven't had time to be affected by the recruiting disadvantage that I think UA teams enjoy. These teams are included below.

Mountain West

Colorado State 6-10; 15-14; 8 of 11

Big East

St. John's 9-8; 19-11; 6 of 10

ACC

Notre Dame 6-11; 15-15; 11 of 15

[AUdmd07 2]

No team on that list outside of Maryland had a basketball history worth mentioning. I don't think given that fact you can say there is an absolute correlation between A resulting in B (A= Wearing UA with B= basketball mediocrity).

Towson and South Dakota state seem to putting competitive teams on the floor within their respective leagues. I am not saying UA doesn't play a role, I just think the role is much much less than what some folks let on and sounds more like another excuse than anything.

[CameronCrazy 1,059]

The Under Armour sponsorship is not just a theory or excuse. It is a big time issue that Mark Murphy from Inside the Auburn Tigers confirmed to me on Monday night. Hopefully Notre Dame switching over to Under Armour will start giving Under Armour more pull. But it is definitely holding Auburn back from getting a top notch coach that will touch these issues of not being allowed to certain events that Nike sponsors where are all of the top notch talent is featured.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

What do y'all think about Tennessee's coach? his team kicked the crap out of us a few days back.

[scottiep 0]

UA contract has been and always will be a weak excuse. When you list out potential barriers/ disadvantages that Auburn has UA shouldn't be near the top if on the list at all. Coaching, development, and player retention have been major problems since Ellis was fired and have been magnified under CTB.

The Under Armour apparel deal is absolutely one of the major issues Auburn Basketball has to deal with. Anyone that doesn't understand that, doesn't understand how the AAU game is played.

It sucks, but that's the way it is. If we were a known commodity in the basketball world, we might could overcome it. But as it is now, we are locked out of recruiting the majority of blue-chippers as well as as plenty of lesser D-1 players.

[AUdmd07 2]

UA contract has been and always will be a weak excuse. When you list out potential barriers/ disadvantages that Auburn has UA shouldn't be near the top if on the list at all. Coaching, development, and player retention have been major problems since Ellis was fired and have been magnified under CTB.

The Under Armour apparel deal is absolutely one of the major issues Auburn Basketball has to deal with. Anyone that doesn't understand that, doesn't understand how the AAU game is played.

It sucks, but that's the way it is. If we were a known commodity in the basketball world, we might could overcome it. But as it is now, we are locked out of recruiting the majority of blue-chippers as well as as plenty of lesser D-1 players.

Again, I'm not buying it. We are locked out of blue chippers because of this staff and previous staffs more than anything. Because we can't attend these AAU camps doesn't mean we can't recruit the participants outside of those venues. Doesn't UA host camps and if not couldn't we get the ball rolling on that? And if we were allowed at the AAU camps do you think the players would say "Excuse me Coach K/Cal/Wiiliams/any coach of a basketball school I am more interested in talking with Coach Barbee/ Lebo/ hack job coaching AU"?

We need a coach who can not only recruit but coach and develop players. Stop making excuses. The right coach that has the support of the administration and PTB would make this UA "hurdle" seem like a speed bump on the way to competing for championships.

[Mikey 16,569]

We're not locked out of recruiting anybody. We can approach any high school player in the country through his high school coach just like the football staff can.

[scottiep 0]

We're not locked out of recruiting anybody. We can approach any high school player in the country through his high school coach just like the football staff can.

You are right--we can recruit them through the high school coach. However the AAU coach has all the influence over the player, not the high school coach.

The shoe company butters the bread of the AAU coach and in return he guides his players to a school that has the same affiliation. All schools get AAU players--not just the "blue bloods." There are plenty of players there going to programs similar to and even lesser programs than AU.

Lebo struggled with it at the end of his tenure and now Barbee has as well. Unless we get a very well-known coach with an incredible resume, our next coach will most likely have the same issues getting SEC talent to AU.

[AUpocalypse 12]

What do y'all think about Tennessee's coach? his team kicked the crap out of us a few days back.

If they elected to bring Pearl back in and canned Martin, I wouldn't be surprised or bothered to see AU pick him up

[Mikey 16,569]

Unless we get a very well-known coach with an incredible resume, our next coach will most likely have the same issues getting SEC talent to AU.

Barbee has brought SEC level talent to Auburn. The problem is they left after one year. That has nothing to do with the AAU, shoe companies or other excuses.

[InfernoOrangeSS 321]

Unless we get a very well-known coach with an incredible resume, our next coach will most likely have the same issues getting SEC talent to AU.

Barbee has brought SEC level talent to Auburn. The problem is they left after one year. That has nothing to do with the AAU, shoe companies or other excuses.

+1

[auburn4ever 1,266]

The guy at UT did a pretty good job for them this year. He might be a good fit for us.

[JFDTiger80 790]

What do y'all think about Tennessee's coach? his team kicked the crap out of us a few days back.

TN as a BB team typically recruits way bette players than we do. I am not sure he could ge tthe sme recruits at AU. I think he sgtays at UT too.

[scottiep 0]

Unless we get a very well-known coach with an incredible resume, our next coach will most likely have the same issues getting SEC talent to AU.

Barbee has brought SEC level talent to Auburn. The problem is they left after one year. That has nothing to do with the AAU, shoe companies or other excuses.

He's brought in a few SEC guards in 4 seasons and a couple of swing guys that didn't last long, but by and large the talent level has been below even many mid-majors. We simply don't have the talent to compete.