Looks like the Malzahn effect is rubbing off on Pearl. He totally botched the clock management in the last minute. He looked like he had never coached a basketball game before. WTH has happened to Auburn basketball this year?

It’s SEC basketball. Only Ky and Tn are relevant once again

TN has never really been very relevant, until last season somewhat and this year.

As for this season it looks like a collective slump. And they did screw the pooch with the clock management tonight.

Tennercee is about to lose several games down the home stretch. Theyve got a tough remaining schedule

Tennessee won't lose more than 1 more game the rest of the way. They are the best, most complete team in the country and it isn't close, in my opinion.

Auburn didn't lose because of clock management, we lost because our best two three pt shooters couldn't hit squat tonight.

They're not even close talent wise to a Duke or Kentucky. Kentucky will probably run them out of the gym Saturday after losing to LSU at Rupp Tuesday.

I don’t think Tennessee will make the elite 8. They’re good, but they’re not even projected to be the top #1 seed in the tournament.

Which is frustrating. We have no answers when the 3 ball doesn’t fall.

I think you're wrong but the good part is we'll get to find out.

The problem is that is a poor plan

So much for Awbern being a basketball school. Come on softball!!

Look at the bright side. You could be a team that can't shoot 3's, can't pound the boards, can't keep turnovers to a minimum, can't play D, and gets out coached night in and night out... you could be Alabama.

Kentucky has had flashes of brilliance, then looked like crap. Tennessee has been the most complete team I have watched outside of Duke. Ain't saying Kentucky can't beat them, but I don't think they will blow them out at all.

That didn’t work to good last year either

Not starting out too well this year, either. They're 3-2 so far. Lots of time to turn it around, though.

Pearl could have brought in a cracker to shoot
the 3's. Or is that racist.

We were there too pre-Pearl so I'm not ready to throw a brick through his window. AU basketball, as frustrating as it can be at times, is at least fun to watch again.

I’ve been telling everyone they ain’t ready for the big time. Now I fully expect baseball to have a good season. And Butch can coach!

Baseball should be good but the SEC is stacked as usual. At least half of the teams are ranked in the top 25 including #1 vandy and #2 LSU.

Hmmm ... game is far from over but looking like a good call so far.

Told you

Hopefully many more to come!

The SEC pretty much sucks at hoops. All of em

Kentucky can ball. They'll be around deep in the tournament. The rest if them do suck though

Always has. As long as I’ve been around.

You sure did.

quote=bill]




Kentucky beating Tennessee like a drum 2 weeks ago was the best thing that could have happened to them. If Tennessee defends like that , they will be a threat to anyone they play. Tennessee, LSU and Kentucky all have a chance to make a deep run come tourney time. Even Ole Miss won't be a team to take lightly.

Meanwhile, 3 of the AP top 10 today are SEC

Funny how they keep hanging around this year.

I wish it was my team. We suck....

Bet there are 0 in the final 4

I'll take that bet. How much Crenshaw? PM, okay?

War Eagle

Hell of a big win

paybacks for football?

For sure. Should make a big jump in seeding too

Congrats to the Barners. Unfortunately you're still stuck with Gus who appears to be putting all his hopes into Bo Nix. You should be able to focus 100% on deer hunting by the beginning of bow season

Funny. You will too with this makeover of bammer coaching staff

Bammer just costed themselves an NCAA bid tonight.

Nah bama did that about 3 weeks ago. They are pitiful, coach needs to be fired as soon as the bus gets back to ttown,

I don’t see him surviving this season

Just read Averys buy out is 8M. His agent raped bammer on that deal. He may not be going anywhere

Drops to $6MM next month. Still way too much money, but a little more palatable.

Let's say Avery heads to New Orleans or another NBA team.

Who would Bama hire?

Not stirring the pot here — seriously, I'm not, — but UA says it's commited to excellence. For basketball that IMO hasn't happened. I thought Anthony Grant was going to be pretty good but he wasn't. When Avery was hired I thought it was a home run. But he's been mediocre.

To be fair, I think Pearl has gotten more out of his players at AU, too, probably far more than expected. They're still on the hook with Person and the cheating-buying FBI investigation, too. Cliff Ellis is the only coach at AU since Sonny retired who has come close to a .600 win percentage, and only two other coaches in the last 65ish years have a win percentage of more than that. AU made some typically-mediocre "He's a nice guy" hires with Eagles and Lebo, and Barbee was an unmitigated f'king disaster.

Neither Auburn nor Alabama have more than a middling, mediocre roughly .500 to .555 winning percentage in the last 20ish years. Alabama's hoops history in the SEC and NCAA is pretty strong, other than the last two decades. Bama is second behind Kentucky in SEC Tournament c'ships.

Why can't Bama find and hire a top-tier coach and turn the corner? Who would they hire?

They are going to have to pony up and pay someone some big money to come there, and give them Saban like control over the program and let them do their thing. I seriously think that Bama is happy being the kings of College Football and want to spend every available resource in preserving that, which make that scenario unlikely. You obviously aren't going to get the guys entrenched in their jobs at these legacy basketball schools. However coaches like Greg Marshall at Wichita State, Mark Few at Gonzaga, and Chris Mack of Louisville would absolutely listen if there were enough zero's in the figure. I just don't know if Alabama will commit to that, which likely means they will remain mediocre for a long while.

$3mil a year ain't chump change. I don't know if it's the old facilities or coaches just afraid of the Bama football/Saban stigma...but $3mil should be able to get a better than .500 coach.

I think you're right about them being happy with football and the rest ... well, if we win at golf or softball or hoops then "ArrTeeArrr! and when is football season?" takes over. Same at AU - "Equestrian champs? Cool! OK, when is football spring practice and how is Bo Nix's hangnail?"

Could a Saban-like hoops coach co-exist with Saban and the football-money-fan machine? Can you have two of those coaches and teams at one school? Kentucky doesn't. North Carolina and Duke don't (though huge props to Duke and Cutcliffe). Syracuse doesn't. Gonzaga and Wichita State don't. Carolina, Duke and Kentucky have the financial resources to not totally suck at football. Yet if they go 9-2 or 8-3 it's a big deal (see, Kentucky 2018).

Some of the closest dual-team powers may be in the Big 10 with Michigan State, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio State. Maybe toss in Purdue. Clearly their basketball history is big but football has stepped up in the last 25-30 years. Mississippi State hired Ben Howland; until Mullen left, he and Howland might have been the top two in the league. Before that, Spurrier and Meyer along with Donovan at Florida might have been the best.

This doesn't even take into account the AU and UA women's programs, which haven't been good since Joe Ciampi and Rick Moody left. That's been 25ish years, too.

It's baffling, to be honest. Every school says they want to win c'ships (in every sport) and yet there's a culture of "Oh, well" at a lot of them.


Greg Marshall at Wichita State was coming, then backed out (which IMO was a flag). I think Few may be happy at Gonzaga; he's had chances to leave for other programs including UCLA. Finding another NBA coach/asst probably would be tough; once they get into the league and don't have to deal with recruiting-NCAA-bagmen-parents, it's hard to leave.

I honestly don't get it. Bama (and others in the SEC) can't attract Tier 1 coaches, and the "Hey, he should be pretty good!" hires like Avery don't pan out. I'm interested in seeing how Crean does at Georgia. If he can't turn it around there, they might as well quit.

he was offered plenty of zeros. then the Koch brothers matched it. It was a game that Alabama never would have won.

Ahhhh. Never knew their involvement with WSU.

Yeah, that's a no-brainer there. They helped buy the presidency and senate seats. Keeping a hoops coach is pocket change for them.

I think so. I mean it's a real rarity but has been done before. Billy Donovan and Urban Meyer pulled it off at Florida, and there have been some pretty good hoops and football teams at Michigan over the years. I think they could co-exist but Saban would get the nod in any resources type dispute without a doubt.

I think that Coach Saban would be happy if Bama had a better basketball program.. It is just another amenity in sports for the team to watch for entertainment.

And that might would be the "I'm done" moment for a hoops coach of that stature, no matter how many titles Nick has won. It just goes directly against having two top-tier programs. If a Boeheim-Calipari-Donovan type coach has to compromise or bend to Nick, he probably wouldn't stay.

I'm kind of surprised, honestly, that UA hasn't torn down Coleman and created a new uber-arena. I always enjoyed watching games in Coleman, though. Never felt like there was a bad sight-line, other than right behind the goal and even that's not bad.

Spurrier-Donovan-Meyer was unique, I think. Texas in the late '80s had great football, baseball, mens and women's basketball (Jody Conradt, the women's coach, was all-time winningest for a while), along with non-rev sports. Of course, Texas was living large and then saw it all disappear due to ego, hubris and similar issues Alabama went through for a bit -- "We're THE team, that can't happen to us." and it did. Texas still is recovering.

100%. Its a great recruiting tool.

Good call. 4 SEC teams made the sweet 16 and Tennessee got completely robbed against Purdue or the league would have had 3 teams make the Elite 8. Basketball has never been better in the SEC.

Bruce Pearl has made around a half million dollars the last couple of weeks in incentives. Money well spent I’d say.

Made even more money than that, when Calipari jumps to the NBA and Kentucky pays him about $10M a year.

#BOOM...He gone.....

Just moved on "The Athletic," a subscriber-only site:



The​ University​ of Kentucky​ has​ offered John​ Calipari what is​ essentially​ a lifetime contract extension​ in response​ to​​ a lucrative offer the coach has received from UCLA, The Athletic has learned.

UCLA offered Calipari a contract worth approximately $48 million over six years, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation. The contacts between Calipari and UCLA have been more extensive than previously reported, but Calipari told UCLA last week he is not interested in leaving Kentucky.

Kentucky gave UCLA permission to speak with Calipari but did not take seriously the possibility that he would leave, partly because in the past UCLA has not committed nearly the same type of financial resources that Kentucky has for basketball. (Calipari is the highest-paid basketball coach in the country, making $9.2 million this year, according to the USA Today Sports database.)

Once Kentucky learned how serious UCLA’s offer was, it offered Calipari, who turned 60 in February, the extension. The school is not looking to substantially enhance Calipari’s annual compensation, but the new contract would include a 10-year term as coach plus a promise to serve as a paid ambassador for the school after his retirement. Calipari’s current contract runs through 2024, after an extension in 2017.

Once Calipari told UCLA he was declining its offer, the school shifted its focus to its next tier of candidates. UCLA representatives have met with former Ohio State coach Thad Matta, but he has withdrawn his name from consideration. UCLA also wants to pursue Virginia coach Tony Bennett, but he has declined to have any conversations until his team is through playing. The Cavaliers will face Auburn on Saturday night at the Final Four in Minneapolis.

Calipari did not return a voicemail and text message request from The Athletic seeking comment.