IN THE CROSSHAIRS

Passion embodies Pearl as Auburn era set to begin

Ken Cross

November 04, 2014 at 10:54 pm.

Bruce Pearl speaks to the media at SEC Basketball Media Days in Charlotte. (Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports)

Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl embodies a love of life and pride in accomplishment. 

His seven-year tenure at the University of Tennessee was literally the Golden Era of college basketball in Knoxville.  Now, as he returns to the bench at SEC rival Auburn, Pearl hopes to reawaken the success that Tiger basketball realized under Sonny Smith, Charles Barkley and Cliff Ellis.

Pearl’s mantra is impressive.  He has a huge heart for the game he loves, but the one thing he loves even more than the game itself is the kids that chose to come to play for him.  Pearl noted how he enjoyed his three-year ESPN gig, but missed those relationships on and off the court with his basketball players.

“The biggest thing I missed was kids and trying to make difference in their lives,” Pearl said. “It was frustrating when I couldn’t make a difference.  I loved what I did at ESPN.  I loved what we were doing and I tried to get better at what I did.  At the end of the broadcast, I didn’t know if I won or lost or changed anybody’s life like I can in coaching.  The thrill of victory is greater, but I never lost at ESPN.”

Pearl’s ending at Tennessee was a ridiculous definition of the NCAA’s well-known selective enforcement procedures.

When a picture at his house of former Ohio State point guard Aaron Craft turned up in the hands of NCAA investigators, the entire ordeal smelled like a set up.  Pearl, like any other coach, hadn’t memorized the literal thousands of pages in the NCAA’s over-written rule book and excused the circus known as the enforcement division of college athletics when they questioned him about the picture.

In the end, Pearl’s three-year show-cause penalty basically came because of the passion for basketball players and their families who might join his program.  How do you tell three recruits and their families to actually leave a cookout attended by several people?  Pearl errored on the side of humanism and the NCAA ground its preverbal ax because of the goodness displayed by the 54-year old basketball coach.

Now the page turns to the Plains, where Pearl has brought in some unbelievably talented graduate students in Niagara transfer Antoine Mason and New Mexico State transfer K.C. Ross-Miller.  In addition to Mason and Ross-Miller coming on board, the Tigers signed the number one junior college player in the nation in Cinmeon Bowers.  Mix in returnees K.T. Harrell and Tahj Shamsid-Deen, plus a group of unproven players who continue to feed off Pearl’s passion and enthusiasm, and you have a team that could cause problems in the SEC right away. 

“I don’t think the talent gap has closed much because we lost three or four players that played a lot of basketball last year,” Pearl said. “We lost Chris Denson, who was one of the top three or four players in the league, and we bought three or four guys in who can play.”

Mixing the chemistry of so many new players is one of the first challenges in rebuilding a program.  Pearl sees Harrell as the wily vet who will be a go-to guy in the clutch, at least early.  With Mason and Ross-Miller being key leaders for the Purple Eagles and Aggies, respectively, a year ago, Auburn could have a group on the floor in critical situations that will cause matchup problems because of their experience and ability to hit big shots.

“Is it going to be the same or better? Where does it shake out?” Pearl elaborated. “I do think that we are training like we are supposed to train and when we play Wisconsin-Milwaukee on that first Friday night in front of a sellout on ESPNU, we will find out where we are at and regardless of where we are, we will work on getting better. 

“It’s really going to be a building process.  These kids have faith in me and I have faith in them.”

Harrell and Mason like Pearl’s style and that inner passion as well.  His ways make players want to give that extra effort.  Pearl’s energy and obvious love for the game is so lauded that Mason, son of former NBA star Anthony Mason, signed with Auburn before he even met Pearl.

“You can tell he missed it and he was so excited to get back,” Mason said. “He teaches and just wants you to do well.  The assistant coaches Chuck Person and Coach Jones did a great job.  They told me what he was like and made me feel comfortable when I came to visit.”

Harrell, who averaged 18.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game a year ago, mused about how Pearl runs a practice at a point where the passion drives the players to work at a break-neck pace without really thinking about giving any extra effort.

“His passion is unmatched and it really rubs off on you as a player and you want to play for him as hard as you can,” Harrell said. “A couple of days in practice somebody might have missed a foul shot or not ran as hard and he takes off his shirt and I am thinking in my mind, ‘Put your shirt back on, please.’ He threw it on the ground.  That’s how passionate he is.  He really wants to win.” 

Pearl will not change his philosophy at all.  He will continue to play the pressure defense and the up-tempo offense that he learned from a legend in Dr. Tom Davis at Iowa and Boston College in the 1980s and early 1990s.  Pearl feels that the intangible of freedom inside a system motivates players on both ends of the floor.

“Players will appreciate that trust and freedom,” he said. “If you trust in them, they will trust in you and put their faith in you, and you might get them to play a little harder on the defensive end than they have ever played if you give them freedom on offense.”

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