Bruce Pearl left the Auburn program, but the last name remains the same on the Tigers’ bench.
Steven Pearl, the son of the coach who took the program to unprecedented heights in his 11 seasons, makes his debut as the head coach on Monday when Auburn opens at home against Bethune-Cookman.
The Tigers reached the Final Four for the second time in Bruce Pearl’s tenure during his last season. While two-time All-American Johni Broome is no longer around to dominate the middle, Bruce Pearl filled the cupboard well enough that Auburn comes into the season ranked 20th in the Associated Press Top 25 poll and should contend in the stacked Southeastern Conference.
Most important, the entire roster stuck around following his retirement. The coaching change happened Sept. 22, when most schools already had their teams in place. But the level of trust the players had in the switch from the father to the son had some meaning, too.
“If S.P. would’ve been the coach last year, I still would have been at Auburn,” said sophomore guard Tahaad Pettiford. “He’s the son of Bruce Pearl. I mean, that should say enough right there.”
Pettiford’s words carry some weight. A first-team preseason all-SEC choice, Pettiford averaged 11.6 points and 3.0 assists last season to earn all-Freshman honors in the conference. He figures to be the leader of this team.
Replacing Broome projects to be a group effort. Transfers Keyshawn Hall (UCF) and KeShawn Murphy (Mississippi State) should provide plenty of punch. Hall pumped in a team-high 18.8 points per game last season and grabbed 7.1 rebounds while Murphy set career highs with 11.7 points per game and 7.4 rebounds per game.
They’ll have to rise to the challenge right away. The Tigers play four top 15 teams in the nonconference schedule, including a trip to preseason No. 1 Purdue on Dec. 20.
“They’re looking forward to the opportunity to show that Auburn is still a team to be reckoned with,” Steven Pearl said.
Meanwhile, Bethune-Cookman is coming off a 17-16 season that ended with a loss in the Southwestern Athletic Conference semifinals. The Wildcats are the league preseason favorites after adding Doctor Bradley, who averaged 19.6 points last season, via the transfer portal from league member Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
The best player on the roster might be its coach, even as he pushes 70 years old. Reggie Theus, who scored more than 19,000 NBA points in a 13-season career, is in his fourth year as the B-C coach.
He has put together a challenging nonconference schedule that includes trips to Miami (Fla.), Dayton, Indiana, Missouri, Arizona and Oklahoma State. In theory, that should prepare his team well for SWAC play.
“Being the preseason No. 1 is great,” Theus said. “It shows what others around the league feel about what we’ve brought in. However, with great expectations comes great responsibility to live up to the hype put upon you.”
Bradley and forward Daniel Rouzan, who averaged 11.8 points and 5.5 rebounds last season, are preseason first-team all-SWAC picks. Point guard Seneca Willoughby is a second-team pick after leading the SWAC in assist-turnover ratio last season at 2.4.
Auburn has won all three meetings with the Wildcats, including a 67-41 victory in 2012.
