Bruce Deserves Our Support and Here is Why

[abw0004 10,134]

Remember building a program up, or building anything up for that matter isn't necessarily an upward curve.  A great example is building wealth through investing.  If you look at it year by year there are ups and downs.  For those visual people, below is the S&P 500 in 2022.

 

If you try to follow the market daily it is even more volatile and if you do that you will want to pull your hair out.  Instead, look at the historical performance over the last 50 years.  The curve looks much better.

Now I use this example because it is what I do for a living but it applies to other facets in life.  Even when trying to lose weight.  Not every week will you lose a pound or two.  Sometimes you gain weight.  The same applies to what Bruce is building.  Some years we outperform expectations like in 2019.  Sometimes we underperform like this season.  Sometimes we are the middle of the road.  But take a step back and look at the trajectory of when Bruce got here in 2014.  It looks a lot more like the second graph than the first.

Bruce still deserves some constructive criticism, but he has built enough goodwill that he deserves to get through this season with our full support.

[Mike4AU 1,739]

31 minutes ago, abw0004 said:

 

Bruce still deserves some constructive criticism, but he has built enough goodwill that he deserves to get through this season with our full support.

Agree. Let's hope Bruce learns from this year.

[zeroforwinger 445]

I agree he deserves our support. The way he’s built this program up is remarkable. I don’t see anyone that I would take seriously saying he should be fired. I think people are concerned that he didn’t address the scoring issue at guard for the past two seasons. The lack of shooting since Chuck Person has been gone is alarming. 

[fishepa 1,911]

Is there someone calling for Bruce Pearl to be fired?  I haven't seen anything.  We're having a down year, big deal, let's make some changes and move forward.  

[aucom96 1,640]

Pearl is the best thing to happen to AU basketball in my lifetime and I haven't seen many suggesting otherwise. I think it's clear that the man can put an exciting product on the court, sell his program like no other to recruits and fans and motivate the pieces he has to play strongly more often than not. Where some of the questions come in is if we can BUILD a program top to bottom built to compete at the top and that's a tough one to answer. Auburn fans are hungry to make our basketball program more than just lightning in a bottle, but that's very difficult to do. We've had some roadblocks and some misfires with recruiting that have hurt us. The next couple of years will be telling, but I think there's a long way to go before the overall confidence level on Bruce reaches anything approaching concerning. 

[icanthearyou 4,464]

I still support CBP.  However, I will not deny that he has done a poor job over the past two seasons.  He has not made adjustments when we aren't matching up well with other teams.

[gabo4au 228]

Support him? I would still give him a lifetime contract and try to figure out a way to have Steven take his place when he retires!

 

Best thing that's ever happened to AU basketball and one of the best things that happened all around. He impacts many other sports. I know someone who played vollyball at AU, she tells stories of Pearl coming to practice and talking to them. She says he was very very careful not to step on the coaches toes and mostly just talked about how great it was to be at AU, to support each other, and work hard. They all thought he was great and their Volleyball coaches also thought the world of him.

 

That's hard to come by, we need to keep him as happy as he's been with us!

[KansasTiger 3,261]

I haven't seen a single poster call for BP to be fired. But there are concerning trends I hope BP can adjust to. I have little insider knowledge that isn't gleaned from this board, but I have observed things that do concern me about BP's teams, at least the last few seasons.

BP's offensive philosophy, especially with a team like this, confuses me, and did last year as well. It appears he doesn't really try and emphasize shot selection having much importance, which explains why we see Broome continue to brick 3's. ALOT of how the offense runs is up to the PG, and when WG runs up against better and bigger guards, he withers, stops distributing, and turns the ball over, and the entire offense falls apart.

This is all compounded by the fact that while most of these players have been under Bruce multiple years now, they have extremely low basketball IQ. That's something I would expect BP to be able to better teach players. He's running an offensive system with important decision points that multiple players need to read correctly to execute where basketball IQ matters. Yes our guards are short, yes they don't shoot well, but then you add bad decision making on top of that? BP has done a poor job recruiting players that can properly execute his basketball philosophy, and he has also done an overall poor job in adjusting his philosophy to match up with the players he has, imo.

And with all that said, I hope he learns and makes some adjustments. I don't want him gone. 

Edited February 27, 2023 by KansasTiger

[Cardin Drake 1,893]

Bruce is Bruce. Loyalty to his players is part of the deal. Most of the time, it's a great thing. He'd have to have 6 or 8 years in a row like this before he'd lose significant fan support. He turned a bad program into a good one, and that buys you a lot of time to fix things when they aren't working. That doesn't mean we fans won't criticize and second guess him along the way.

Edited February 27, 2023 by Cardin Drake

[e808 3,028]

34 minutes ago, Cardin Drake said:

Bruce is Bruce. Loyalty to his players is part of the deal. Most of the time, it's a great thing. He'd have to have 6 or 8 years in a row like this before he'd lose significant fan support. He turned a bad program into a good one, and that buys you a lot of time to fix things when they aren't working. That doesn't mean we fans won't criticize and second guess him along the way.

Respectfully, we are in a results based world. It’s a what have u done for me lately process. I think 6 to 8 years in a row is pushing it . U have people that get fired two years after winning a championship. Regardless of what Auburn use to be the expectations are different now. This will be amplified it that other team in the state continues to evolve. Let’s hope for a split in these last two and move forward.

[abw0004 10,134]

This thread was regarding those being extremely harsh on BP, especially in the game threads.  I am not sure where the reference came from that I insinuated people think BP should be fired, unless it is the last sentence and I could possibly see that.  I just meant he should continue to be fully supported and not torn down with every loss.

[W.E.D 11,070]

2 hours ago, icanthearyou said:

I still support CBP.  However, I will not deny that he has done a poor job over the past two seasons.  He has not made adjustments when we aren't matching up well with other teams.

This is a good summary.  You can support someone and still be critical of them

[TigerTennis80 349]

In the FWIW category, I think a big part of this season's disappointment may lie with Westry's injury & Traore's need for development. Apparently Westry had a super summer so that we were all looking forward to him being the bigger, talented guard to play alongside Wendell or share PG duties with him. And then he got hurt & couldn't recover. Traore apparently has worlds of athleticism but hasn't actually been playing basketball terribly long so that he needs more development than perhaps anticipated. We aren't that far from having 4-5 more wins despite our lack of a shooter. Think of our close losses & "what might have been" if these 2 players had brought the contributions expected. Personally I don't lay these things on Bruce because he's had good success with freshmen players in the past. Sometimes things just go sideways. I'm looking forward to them contributing next year. My primary question for Bruce, if I could ask him, would be about the apparent lack of basketball IQ that shows up at inconvenient times. But even about that... What I remember about Jared is that he made questionable decisions in crunch time... until he didn't. My own experience in sports is that you practice & practice, work & work, & then 1 day something clicks. I don't know if a coach make the "click" happen. What he can do is make you work & work & practice & practice (the right way, I might add) so that you are ready for the "click" to happen. I am confident Bruce is doing that. And recruiting looks good going forward. I'm disappointed in this season but not disappointed in where the program is or is headed. War Eagle my fellow Aubies!

[autan 754]

No one is suggesting a firing, I hope. Coach Pearl is an outstanding coach, great recruiter, great ambassador for Auburn, players and recruits and students love him. What more could you ask for in a coach?. He may be loyal to a fault, I don't know. But he was weak at Guard last year and that continued this year. He has addressed that issue for the next two seasons. I think CBP could have gotten a couple of very good shooters in the portal but chose to go in a different direction. That's on him. Of course he's also had some bad luck. There's not enough schollies in basketball for backup plans. You have to play the hand you are dealt. For this he has made the most of it and should receive a lot of credit IMO. I'd be shocked if we have enough in the tank to go very far in tourneys, but stranger things have happened.  WDE!!

[KansasTiger 3,261]

8 minutes ago, autan said:

No one is suggesting a firing, I hope. Coach Pearl is an outstanding coach, great recruiter, great ambassador for Auburn, players and recruits and students love him. What more could you ask for in a coach?. He may be loyal to a fault, I don't know. But he was weak at Guard last year and that continued this year. He has addressed that issue for the next two seasons. I think CBP could have gotten a couple of very good shooters in the portal but chose to go in a different direction. That's on him. Of course he's also had some bad luck. There's not enough schollies in basketball for backup plans. You have to play the hand you are dealt. For this he has made the most of it and should receive a lot of credit IMO. I'd be shocked if we have enough in the tank to go very far in tourneys, but stranger things have happened.  WDE!!

One incoming HS PG is not going to adequately address our guard problem. He needs to kill it in the portal, too.

[autan 754]

At least he has recognized the problem and addressed it somewhat. I would agree problem is still not resolved. Also agree that transfer portal is critical for next year or I'm afraid natives will be getting restless for sure.

[cole256 17,084]

😂I like this, I'm going to try to tie in some basketball and football strategy using the chart of nuclides. Or maybe some steam tables or a mollier diagram!

Edited February 27, 2023 by cole256

[cole256 17,084]

2 hours ago, KansasTiger said:

I haven't seen a single poster call for BP to be fired. But there are concerning trends I hope BP can adjust to. I have little insider knowledge that isn't gleaned from this board, but I have observed things that do concern me about BP's teams, at least the last few seasons.

BP's offensive philosophy, especially with a team like this, confuses me, and did last year as well. It appears he doesn't really try and emphasize shot selection having much importance, which explains why we see Broome continue to brick 3's. ALOT of how the offense runs is up to the PG, and when WG runs up against better and bigger guards, he withers, stops distributing, and turns the ball over, and the entire offense falls apart.

This is all compounded by the fact that while most of these players have been under Bruce multiple years now, they have extremely low basketball IQ. That's something I would expect BP to be able to better teach players. He's running an offensive system with important decision points that multiple players need to read correctly to execute where basketball IQ matters. Yes our guards are short, yes they don't shoot well, but then you add bad decision making on top of that? BP has done a poor job recruiting players that can properly execute his basketball philosophy, and he has also done an overall poor job in adjusting his philosophy to match up with the players he has, imo.

And with all that said, I hope he learns and makes some adjustments. I don't want him gone. 

Basically only certain people can say certain things.

[WillMunny 1,384]

Bruce is an excellent coach who has made some bad decisions in the past couple years, and will rebound from them.  His biggest mistakes include losing out on some really good guards and having to settle for the ones we have, and not making them play team ball.  He lets them shoot logo 3-pointers with more than half the time remaining on the shot clock.

But his job is (and should be) very safe, and he has some good recruits coming in the next couple years.  Our future is bright.

I'd like to throw a pie in his face for letting Green play me-ball, then shake his hand and buy him dinner for all the good he has done for Auburn basketball over the past 9 years.

[DAG 34,034]

Complacency Is The Enemy Of Progress

[NoALtiger 3,873]

I don’t guess I realized Bruce needed our support since so many folks are calling for him to be fired lol. I mean really, I post here all the time and almost every regular poster here agrees to some degree that Bruce has made a bit of a bad roster decision here but feels confident he will adjust it. There may be a poster or two caught up in the heat of another frustrating loss that may get a little bonkers but most folks are on the same page. Bruce is fine, he gets incredible support, he’s the best we’ve ever had, and he’s made a mistake that he will rectify. It’s really not that difficult. WDE. 

[AU9377 5,136]

On 2/28/2023 at 11:28 PM, DAG said:

Complacency Is The Enemy Of Progress

True, but ignorance is anyone pretending that we would have a respectable program but for Bruce.

[Auburn93 584]

On 2/27/2023 at 11:49 AM, KansasTiger said:

I haven't seen a single poster call for BP to be fired. But there are concerning trends I hope BP can adjust to. I have little insider knowledge that isn't gleaned from this board, but I have observed things that do concern me about BP's teams, at least the last few seasons.

BP's offensive philosophy, especially with a team like this, confuses me, and did last year as well. It appears he doesn't really try and emphasize shot selection having much importance, which explains why we see Broome continue to brick 3's. ALOT of how the offense runs is up to the PG, and when WG runs up against better and bigger guards, he withers, stops distributing, and turns the ball over, and the entire offense falls apart.

This is all compounded by the fact that while most of these players have been under Bruce multiple years now, they have extremely low basketball IQ. That's something I would expect BP to be able to better teach players. He's running an offensive system with important decision points that multiple players need to read correctly to execute where basketball IQ matters. Yes our guards are short, yes they don't shoot well, but then you add bad decision making on top of that? BP has done a poor job recruiting players that can properly execute his basketball philosophy, and he has also done an overall poor job in adjusting his philosophy to match up with the players he has, imo.

And with all that said, I hope he learns and makes some adjustments. I don't want him gone. 

A Bruce Pearl that doesn't make adjustments is still better than Cliff Ellis, Sonny Smith and the other unmentionables.

[KansasTiger 3,261]

32 minutes ago, Auburn93 said:

A Bruce Pearl that doesn't make adjustments is still better than Cliff Ellis, Sonny Smith and the other unmentionables.

I'll be honest, I don't understand the point of this post. Is it to tell people to shut up and be happy with what we have? No one is arguing we would be better off without Bruce. And he didn't get to where he is by never making adjustments. I would hope everyone here WANTS him to make these adjustments. I'm not trying to be snide or rude but, what's the point of what you said?

[LPTiger 5,202]

On 2/27/2023 at 8:30 AM, zeroforwinger said:

I agree he deserves our support. The way he’s built this program up is remarkable. I don’t see anyone that I would take seriously saying he should be fired. I think people are concerned that he didn’t address the scoring issue at guard for the past two seasons. The lack of shooting since Chuck Person has been gone is alarming. 

Zero, I don't think our poor shooting is related to Person being gone from the program.   He was arrested and dismissed in 2017.   We shot it pretty good for the next 2 years because the players we put out on the court were good shooters.   The last 2 years we haven't shot it well because our guards Zep, Wendall, KD simply aren't good shooters -- not at AU or at their previous schools.  Remember last year when KD went 0-13, IIRC, from 3. Flan also hasn't been the same since his injury.   Coaching can improve a player's shot, but I don't think any coach can take a junior who is a career 35% shooter and make him a 45% shooter.  We need better players and BP knows that.