The Auburn Tigers are one of the most decorated programs in the NCAA … for football, that is. This season coach Bruce Pearl will attempt to change the perception of his basketball team nationally.
Instead of having a sold out football stadium, and a large group of swarming fans inside of Jordan-Hare Stadium, Pearl wants his basketball team to take center stage in the SEC and in the NCAA. Though it’s wishful thinking … it’s a really good thought process. But then again, why wouldn’t we expect this from Pearl?
A flair for the dramatics is his M.O.
This year, Pearl is engaging with the students and is getting them as fired up for the beginning of the basketball season. If it means going to the top of rooftops wearing a spiderman suit with a loud speaker and screaming “War Eagle. We’re ready for basketball season” it shouldn’t never come as a surprise.
Instead of completing stunts like that though, Pearl is on a grassroots marketing campaign and goes door-to-door in Auburn classrooms and is getting students fired up for the season.
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This is all done for good reason because his Auburn Tigers might end up competing for the SEC championship, and could potentially find themselves in the NCAA tournament.
One of the biggest reasons why the Tigers could find themselves playing for the SEC championship is because of their guard play. We have heard the cliche: “During tournament time, it always comes down to guard play.”
Having two of the best guards in the SEC in KT Harrell, and Antoine Mason (transfer) in the backcourt is going to give teams within the nation a lot of trouble.
It’s like Pearl said in the video above, “You guys know KT Harrell? Not enough of you know KT.”
Last season Harrell was one of the best scorers in the NCAA. In his junior year, the 6’4″, 212-pound Harrell averaged 18.3 points per game, shot 43 percent from the field, and 87 percent from the free throw line. Harrell was sixth in the SEC in scoring and was ninth in minutes per game.
In every single game last season but one, Harrell had double digit scoring figures. Also, he scored at least 20 points in 12 games.
This season Harrell comes back another year smarter, and one more year wiser entering his senior year as a member of the Auburn Tigers basketball team.
As for his backcourt running mate Antoine Mason, he was the nation’s top scorer last season playing for Niagara, where he virtually was an unknown commodity.
Playing for Auburn and lacing his sneakers up with Harrell on the same court is going to give Mason the exposure and much well deserved attention as a basketball player that he deserves.
Next year we should expect to see Harrell, and Mason shoot a lot of jump shots and score a lot of points, because in Pearl’s system, they are going to become the workhorses of his offense. Pearl ran a very impersonal offense at Tennessee, and allowed his players to take shots they were comfortable with.
When he coached at Tennessee, Pearl believed in giving his players the “green light” when they played because he trusted their abilities. Most of his Tennessee teams had shooters that would gun up a bunch of 3-point field goals.
His feast-or-famine style of coaching gave his rosters some of the deadliest shooters in the country, and let the whole court open up with spacing. His style of coaching allowed his teams to never get outmatched in any game even if opponents had a larger frontline than his teams.
What fan isn’t ready to watch the Auburn Tigers? This is one of the sleeper teams in the SEC that people should pay attention to. The fact that anyone can even read the last sentence and not chuckle is evidence that Pearl has already begun changing the perception of the Tigers nationally.
Soon enough we may see it change on a larger scale.