Auburn’s basketball program is fresh off its first No. 1 AP Poll ranking in history and followed it up with a tough win over Missouri on the road, marking the Tigers’ 16th straight win. The team is set to make a deep run in the tournament in March and could potentially have the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft in Jabari Smith.
Despite the clear upward trajectory of the program that head coach Bruce Pearl spent eight years building on the Plains, people are convinced that he would happily leave basketball at Auburn to be the head coach of Louisville.
The argument from these people continues to be that Louisville is a better job with a long history of NCAA Tournament success and 22,000 fans who pack their arena in support of the Cardinals. However, Louisville basketball is a program rooted in NCAA violations and currently lacks a full-time president and athletic director.
According to Pat FordéBruce Pearl in Louisville “it’s not happening”:
One of Louisville’s early fan favorites who seems to have no chance is Auburn’s Bruce Pearl. This is a school under a massive compliance microscope; hiring a coach who has been sanctioned twice in the last 11 years is not done.
Pearl admitted to making innocent mistakes during his time at Tennessee, and after getting a second chance with Auburn basketball, he had to deal with former assistant coach Chuck Person’s infractions, instituting a ban from self-imposed post-season last year and suffering a two-game suspension this season.
As someone who’s been on the NCAA’s radar for the past few years, Pearl isn’t the ideal candidate – just from an off-court standpoint – for a school that’s about to spend a lot of time under the NCAA microscope.
But it also seems highly unlikely that Bruce Pearl will walk away from what he’s built on the Plains. Sure, everyone has a price, but with no leadership stability in Louisville and looking at Auburn’s basketball success, hopefully Tiger fans can remain confident that Pearl isn’t going anywhere.