Pearl 'anxious' as Auburn opens season

AUBURN | There’s been setbacks. It’s gone slower than he would prefer. But as Bruce Pearl begins his third season at Auburn, there’s plenty of reasons for optimism.

The Tigers are as talented and deep as they’ve been since Pearl arrived although he’s expected to start three freshmen in the opener against North Florida Friday night.

“You would think after coaching for 35 years, I think this is my 35th season in coaching, that I would be a little less anxious than I was years ago but I’m still just as anxious as we get ready to get started and tip things off and see where we’re at,” Pearl said.

“Two weeks ago when we got back from Chattanooga I felt really good about our effort and our energy. I thought last week we had dropped back some and you don’t like to drop back when you’ve got such a young team. You would like to be able to continue to move forward, but that’s not realistic. I believe in the formula of how we’re doing things and I still believe in the formula of how we schedule as we sit here before we get ready to tip off.”

Pearl will test his young team against a tough non-conference schedule beginning with the Ospreys, which are back-to-back Atlantic Sun champions and return conference Player of the Year Dallas Moore.

The senior point guard averaged 19.8 points, 6.0 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game last season.

“For Jared Harper to be playing his first college game and for Ronnie Johnson to be playing his first game at Auburn against a guy that good, it’s going to be really challenging and obviously very interesting,” Pearl said.

Pearl is expected to start three freshmen: Harper at point guard, Mustapha Heron at one of the wings and Danjel Purifoy at forward. Purifoy redshirted last season.

The rest of the starting lineup should include senior T.J. Dunans at the other wing and sophomore Horace Spencer at center. Pearl plans to use at least 10 in the playing rotation with Johnson, TJ Lang, Bryce Brown, Anfernee McLemore and LaRon Smith expected to see plenty of action off the bench.

“I just think that my focus is them to focus on that effort and energy. Nothing we do works well when you play 10 guys unless we come out flying,” Pearl said.

Tip-off at the Auburn Arena is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network Alternate.