Finebaum On Pearl

[aubiefifty 18,231]

Paul Finebaum sizes up Bruce Pearl after disappointing season

By Brad Crawford10 hrs

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Only two years removed from a Final Four appearance, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl has suffered his first losing season since 2015 with the Tigers, a product of the program's lack of starpower it is accustomed to having in the backcourt and on the wings during his successful tenure.

ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum said this week there's no reason to press the panic button on Pearl, who simply battled through a difficult campaign.

"I think (this season was) transitional, but I do very strongly believe he’s one of the best coaches in the SEC and I think he’ll continue to be," Finebaum said Monday during his weekly appearance on WJOX. "He’s also weathered a very-difficult period. I don’t know who came up with the idea to go with a postseason ban this year, but clearly this person understood the talent situation on the Auburn team and what was about to happen. I think he’s got a great ability to recruit.

"I think the Auburn program will be very relevant again next year."

The Tigers (13-14) finished out their season with a weekend win over Mississippi State, Pearl's 600th victory of his career. The win was fueled by Allen Flanigan's team-best 22 points.

“He got downhill, he turned the corner,” Pearl said. “I kind of challenged him a little bit. Mississippi State was switching out, and I was like, ‘Come on man, you have got to be able to drive by these big guys. We are getting you double gaps. You should be able to turn the corner.’

“He turned the corner a couple times and had some real tough twos. He didn’t play for the foul, scored through the contact and that’s what he has got to do. The fact that he played 20 minutes in the second half and didn’t have a turnover, that was huge valuing the ball, taking caring of business."

Earlier this spring, Pearl noted Auburn's season-long struggles centered on the Tigers' defense and their lack of quickness as a team. It also didn't help the Tigers were considered college basketball's youngest team and played more guys from a rotational sense that ever before — Auburn had 11 players who played an average of 10 minutes or more per game.

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“I’m optimistic,” Pearl said, sizing up his program's trajectory following the season-ending win. “But we’ve got to stay together. We’ve got to develop. We’ve got to grow. We’ll see. Very excited about the kids we’ve got coming in. Very excited about the guys we’ve got returning.”

 

 

[AuburnNTexas 7,317]

That was a fair and honest analyses. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,046]

I think you'd have to be a dolt to look at this season, considering what transpired, and say it was "disappointing"

not directing that to the OP btw 

[BigSammyK 171]

9 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I think you'd have to be a dolt to look at this season, considering what transpired, and say it was "disappointing"

not directing that to the OP btw 

I think it was disappointing BECAUSE of all the negatives that transpired. I.E., Cooper and Powell missing so many games, Turbo not panning out as a suitable backup, some close games not going our way, etc...

[mustache eagle 2,454]

I think a lot of folks have forgotten that we had a 3 year guy - turbo - training to be a PG from being a combo guard.  Had expectations higher than the performance but it stood to reason that we’d start the season with him giving solid minutes along with cooper.  Then we wake up and have zero PG’s.  Heck of a strange season with the youngest team in bball.

[lutzcammed 471]

I think, all things considered, Pearl did a heck of a job.  our pg situation was a tough spot to overcome.   If you could play any one of Cooper, Powell  or even Turbo in the games we didn't have a point, we would have finished over 500.  And yes we were very young.  I think Pearl used the whole season as a instructional building block looking towards the future.  I also believe 100% it is harder to stay focused when you have nothing to play for, especially with the younger guys. I am not dissatisfied at all, with the exception of losing Powell.

I am very much looking forward to next year.  if no one else leaves, we have all the pieces in place to make a deep run, especially if our new players coming in produce as expected.

 

[steeleagle 2,945]

11 minutes ago, lutzcammed said:

I think, all things considered, Pearl did a heck of a job.  our pg situation was a tough spot to overcome.   If you could play any one of Cooper, Powell  or even Turbo in the games we didn't have a point, we would have finished over 500.  And yes we were very young.  I think Pearl used the whole season as a instructional building block looking towards the future.  I also believe 100% it is harder to stay focused when you have nothing to play for, especially with the younger guys. I am not dissatisfied at all, with the exception of losing Powell.

I am very much looking forward to next year.  if no one else leaves, we have all the pieces in place to make a deep run, especially if our new players coming in produce as expected.

 

Sorry, but after watching Turbo for the last 2 years, and especially this year, Turbo was in no way any better at PG than Flanigan. I think we still would have struggled to .500 if Turbo stayed.

The only thing that might have helped our record, was finding out for certain if JJ could play the point much earlier, and if we could have won some of those games we had such a high TO rate. 

The problem was having 2 of your best ball handlers out for the majority of SEC games, and struggling to see if Flanigan could hold down the PG spot successfully, which in the end proved to be unsuccessful.

[aucanucktiger 1,889]

Pearl's analysis of Finebaum: now THAT would be worth the price of admission!

[boisnumber1 2,916]

I give Pearl an average rating for what he did with a young team. At the same time though, whose fault is it that we had such a young team? Who still didnt realize our supposed backup PG was not even serviceable? I like CBP a lot but no way he gets more than a C out of me on this season. Kinda the you made the bed, you sleep in it scenario imo.