Tennessee basketball may have the opportunity to play spoiler in Steven Pearl’s first season as Auburn’s head coach. The Tigers defeated Mississippi State in the first round of the SEC Tournament on Wednesday, setting the stage for a bout between the Vols and Tigers on Thursday.
Auburn is widely considered a team teetering on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament. The win over the Bulldogs was a necessary step toward getting into the 68-team field, but a win over Tennessee would almost certainly catapult it in.
However, if the Vols can take down the Tigers, there’s a chance the selection committee could hold the Tigers out of the NCAA Tournament in Pearl’s first season due to a weak resume.
Auburn enters the game 17-15 (7-11 SEC) and sits as the 12-seed in the SEC Tournament. Tennessee is the 5-seed in the event. Tip-off in Nashville is set for 3 p.m. ET on SEC Network on Thursday.
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Before the SEC Tournament even started, Pearl has already begun to argue for his team to make the tournament, as well. In a postgame press conference after losing to Alabama to round out the regular season, he pleaded his case.
“We’ve put ourselves in obviously a difficult situation, but also a great situation,” Pearl said. “We play in the best league in college basketball. It’s the deepest league in college basketball. We have five of some of the best wins in the country. We have the best win in college basketball at Florida. If you look at our quality wins and you look at the other teams on the bubble, I don’t think those teams get those wins. I just don’t. So we put ourselves to be in position to be considered.
“I think our resume stands up against anybody’s. I’m not sure what the number would be tonight after the game, I don’t know if anybody has KenPom pulled up. I’d imagine that we finished one or two in strength of schedule overall, which is what the committee asked us to do. We scheduled and played against some of the best teams in college basketball, we went 2-2 against the conference champions of the SEC, the Big East, the Big Ten and the Big 12 and we didn’t play any of those games at home.
“We have enough quality wins to be deserving to be in this Tournament but we understand that we’ve got to go to Nashville, and we’ve got to make a run just so we don’t have to be sweating it out on Sunday. The urgency is this could be your last game if you don’t find a way to win these ones moving forward.”
This is Pearl’s first season as the head coach of Auburn. He was an assistant coach under his father, Bruce Pearl, before he suddenly retired just ahead of the season. This positioned the program to promote Steven Pearl into the head job with little other options remaining.
Steven Pearl is a former Tennessee player, as well. When Bruce Pearl coached the Vols, Steven Pearl played from 2007-11. He averaged 1.9 points and 1.6 rebounds per game in 34 appearances and one start as a senior.
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