Revisiting Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl’s first win over Alabama 20 years later

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It’s hardly common, at least by Mark Gottfried’s measure, for two basketball coaches to sit down and talk before a game. But the day’s contest allowed for an exception, as his friend was on the other bench.

Bruce Pearl was in his fourth season at Milwaukee-Wisconsin. His 12th-seeded Panthers were going up against Gottfried’s squad, No. 5 seed Alabama, that morning. In the back-and-forth banter of two coaches who went way back, Gottfried posed a question.

“Bruce, at what point are you going to get a good opportunity,” Gottfried asked, “where you can get up to a high-major school?”

Pearl replied swiftly, saying: “In about 40 minutes, when I kick your team’s butt.”

The two laughed then, and they still do now, because Pearl’s words soon became prophetic.

Gottfried was in the seventh of his 11 seasons helming Alabama basketball, with a recently secured SEC regular-season championship, which followed his program’s first Elite Eight a season prior. His friend and opponent was two years removed from his first and only NCAA Tournament appearance at the time. And his bunch of Panthers had won the Horizon League regular-season title for the second season in a row.

It was high-major dominant against mid-major darling. The former was favored by 4.5 points. But it hardly mattered, as the Panthers duped the Tide, 83-73 in Cleveland.

It was Milwaukee’s first-ever NCAA Tournament victory, and what followed was the Panthers’ deepest tournament run to date. They went on to upset 4-seed Boston College, Pearl’s alma mater, in the round of 32. Eventually, they lost to Illinois, which fell six points shy of a national championship that year, in the Sweet Sixteen.

Eleven days later, Pearl got his high-major opportunity. He became Tennessee basketball’s coach four days after Milwaukee’s season ended.

Twenty seasons later, Pearl’s first career victory over Alabama served as a fitting foreshadow. Now, the Auburn basketball coach of 11 seasons helms the archrival of the team he…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/revisiting-auburn-basketball-coach-bruce-100829939.html

Author : The Montgomery Advertiser

Publish date : 2025-03-06 10:08:00

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