Bruce Pearl Jokes about Coaching Change Rumors after No. 1 Auburn Blows Out Kentucky

The No. 1 Auburn Tigers clinched the regular season SEC Championship with a convincing 94-78 win against the No. 17 Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday.

They did it in Rupp Arena, a place the Tigers haven’t won since 1988, and a personal house of horrors for head coach Bruce Pearl who has played in Lexington with several teams.

The significance of the accomplishment wasn’t lost on Pearl who said he had his speech prepared should his team have lost on Saturday.

“My line was going to be every now and then, when y’all have a coaching change, my name comes up – ‘Why in the world would you ever want me to be your coach when I can’t win in Rupp?’ That was gonna be in my line,” Pearl said lightheartedly.

Pearl went on to describe the problems his teams have had playing in Kentucky.

“Having coached Southern Indiana in Evansville, Indiana, having coached in Division 2 for a long time, y’all remember what great basketball there is in the state of Kentucky and the state of Indiana and how y’all love your high school basketball,” said Pearl. “But you also love your Division 2 basketball, because y’all respect the game so much. There are no more knowledgeable fans anywhere in the country than right here in Kentucky.

“So there have been times I’ve brought really good teams in here and we’ve gotten spanked.”

Pearl has his Auburn Tigers team humming coming into the Kentucky game, and the Wildcats aren’t at their strongest. It’s ironic that in what is considered one of the best conferences of all time, the flagship basketball program of the SEC is in a three-way tie for eighth place at 8-8.

That the Wildcats are a shadow of their best doesn’t diminish the respect Pearl has for the program and its accomplishments.

“So I want to bring a team in here and I want to play the basketball. I want to honor the game whether we were going to lose and we’ve played well a couple of times and gotten beat, but this is obviously historic,” said Pearl.

“Two wins and 31 losses in 33 tries,” Pearl said of Auburn’s record at Rupp. “And for this one to be for a championship, it’s what we do it for. To make to make history. This is our fifth team in the last eight years that has won either a regular season or tournament championship. So I’m just super, super proud and super happy.”

Pearl turns 65 this month, and he’s been at Auburn for over a decade. He has turned the Tigers into an SEC powerhouse on the hardcourt. However, success in the NCAA Tournament has been elusive.

He took his 2019 team to the Final Four, but otherwise the Tigers haven’t been out of the second round in four other appearances.

This is by far Pearl’s best team. He’s proven he can win at Rupp, now Pearl sets his sights on bigger goals.