AUBURN | There’s always a bit of luck involved in coaching searches and Auburn was certainly very fortunate to land Bruce Pearl in 2014.
In 10 years, Pearl has transformed the Tigers from one of the SEC’s worst basketball programs to one of its best.
It’s like winning the lottery and seeing those winnings roll in every year. And 2024 has already produced big returns.
With Sunday night’s impressive SEC Tournament title, Pearl now has a total of four conference championships at AU — two tournament and two regular season.
In the 108 seasons without Pearl, Auburn also has four championships — one tournament and three regular season.
Put another way, Pearl has won half of Auburn’s league titles in only 8.5 percent of the program’s history. He’s also taken Auburn to its first-ever Final Four in 2019 and who knows where and when this season will end.
That’s one heck of a return on investment.
Pearl often talks about making history. A lot of coaches talk about a lot of things. But Pearl backs his words up with real-world results.
During a decade when the football program has been mired in inconsistency, it’s Pearl’s basketball program that has been a shining beacon of success at Auburn.
How much brighter will it shine this March?
There are plenty of reasons to be bullish on AU’s chances in the NCAA Tournament based on its play this weekend.
Auburn led by double-digits for the final 35 minutes of its 31-point blowout win over South Carolina Friday. In a physical brawl against Mississippi State Saturday, AU won for the first time by less than 10 points.
The experience of winning a tight game could pay dividends in the coming weeks.
In the final against Florida, Auburn built a lead but had the Gators storm back to nearly tie it in the second half. Just when it looked like UF had seized all the momentum, AU took control with a huge run to win its 26th game by double-digits.
You can go down AU’s roster and just about every player is playing his best basketball of the season.
In 2019, Auburn’s run ended after 12 consecutive wins. AU enters this year’s NCAA Tournament with six straight wins.
We all know what happens if the Tigers win six more.
It’ll be more history for Pearl and Auburn.
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In today’s musical journey, we go back 28 years to the day the leading band of the British punk movement announced their reunion. On March 18, 1996, the Sex Pistols announced they were getting back together for a 20th anniversary tour called the Filthy Lucre Tour. After previously saying they would never get back together, frontman Johnny Rotten told the press, “We still hate each other with a vengeance. But we’ve found a common cause to bring us back together again, and it's your money.” The tour included 70 dates in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Europe, Australia and Japan, and grossed an estimated $20 million. It also produced a live album, which was recorded at London’s Finsbury Park. The Sex Pistols toured again in 2002 playing for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and making a few stops in the U.S., and again in 2007-08 for concerts in the UK and Europe. The band had released their single, “God Save the Queen” in 1977 to coincide with the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. It was banned by the BBC and most independent radio stations in the UK and is considered the most censored song in UK history.
The Sex Pistols, originally called The Strand, formed in London in 1972 by three teenagers: Steve Jones (vocals), Paul Cook (drums) and Wally Nightingale (guitar). They grew up during a time of high unemployment and actually started out playing on stolen instruments. Bassist Glen Matlock joined the band in 1974 shortly before Nightingale left. John Lydon joined in 1975 and was given the nickname, Johnny Rotten, by Jones due to his bad teeth. They chose the name Sex Pistols and started playing at colleges and clubs in and around London and then gradually spread out to other cities. They signed their first record deal in 1976 and released their first single, “Anarchy in the U.K.” and began touring with the Clash. Sid Vicious replaced Matlock in 1977 and they they released their only studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, which included “Anarchy in the U.K.,” “God Save the Queen,” “Pretty Vacant” and “Holidays in the Sun.” The album is ranked No. 73 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. With Vicious struggling with a heroin addiction, Rotten left the band in 1978. Vicious was arrested for murdering his girlfriend in New York later that year and then died of a heroin overdose in February of 1979. The Sex Pistols were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 but refused to attend the ceremony with Rotten calling it a, “shit stain.”
