June 27, 2016
Auburn Head Coach Bruce Pearl
Opening Statement...
"We're excited about our team. We've had tremendous roster adjustments over the last three seasons. I brought in six new players my first year, six my second year and six this year. That's 18, and we only have 13 scholarships. At the same time, we've graduated 11 players. We've had back-to-back 1,000 perfect APRs while we've had some transition, so the transition hasn't hurt our APR. Of our top 12 or 13 guys, seven or eight of them are freshmen or sophomores. So, we've got a very good, young foundation built, and I think that combination of the way Auburn Arena has emerged as a great home-court advantage and the support that we have received and selling games out and our attendance numbers. Based on the percentage of the seats that we have, butts in the seats, we're one of the top 10 in the country as far as percentage is concerned. That's great for Auburn, and it's great for the SEC. It probably doesn't get near enough attention. That with upgrading our recruiting, the last couple of years we've had some good classes, and that is going to start to pay off for us some on the court. We've always played a really tough schedule. I think my first year our strength of schedule was somewhere in the 30s, and I think last year it was somewhere in the 40s or 50s maybe, and this year is not going to be any different. Clearly playing a much more difficult schedule than our program was ready to play, but I did not want to hurt the league while I was rebuilding this program because even though our record suffered in part because of it, our RPI wasn't what it could have been had we not played as tough a schedule as we played. So, therefore, if we did upset an SEC opponent, it didn't take them out of the tournament necessarily. And that was important to me that we didn't bring the rest of the league down while we were rebuilding."
On the challenges of having young players in the program...
"I think the biggest challenge is probably the speed of the game and the defensive fundamentals. Most kids coming in, offensively, have got game. They've got some skills and they can score. But playing defense, team defense, rotations, it's somewhat shocking to me how weak some of their fundamentals are coming in, and so we've got catching up to do in that area. Now I'm just talking about simple shell work ... ball pressure, rotations ball-screen defense, just the team defensive aspects. I'm talking about elementary stuff. You've got to go back and you've got to teach those fundamentals again because if you can get a team to play hard and play together defensively, rebound, then they'll share the ball on the offensive end as well, and a lot of our guys don't know how to defend as a team yet, so that's one of the challenges of having a young team. Another thing is just the inexperience. You take a guy like Danjel Purifoy next year. He's going to be a redshirt freshman. He's a very talented player, and he's going to have impact on our team, but he would've had a lot more impact on our team had he been a sophomore and had he gone through the wringer and been on the road and just experienced the good, the bad and the ugly that can take place as a freshman. I think that one thing to building a consistent program and building a winner, building a team that can compete for the tournament is bringing guys back, and I've just not been able to bring enough guys back to matter, but we're getting closer."
On the SEC hiring Mike Tranghese and how did the spring meetings go with him there...
"I think it's great start. I've known Mike for a long, long time because when I was at Boston College and we were getting into the Big East in 1981, Mike was at Providence College as the SID, and he and Dave Gavitt got that thing started, and I've been a big fan of what the Big East was and what it is even and the job that Mike has done. We have a real basketball man. His connections, his wisdom, his experience, and quite frankly, he's very motivated to see if the SEC men's basketball can become more competitive. I thought we had a very, very productive meeting. And I think with the addition of Dan Leibovitz, Mike Tranghese and Mark Whitehead we really, really enhanced our office and the job that all of them can do. Bottom line is we as coaches have got to recruit, coach, win and, obviously, get more teams in the tournament. One of my ideas or suggestions during the course of that meeting, and I've had this discussion with Mr. Gavitt up at the NCAA, there are 68 teams in the NCAA Tournament now. There's a Top 25 ranking, but for some reason, Top 50 was the buzz word this year as far as that criteria is concerned for the NCAA Tournament. Sometimes it's strength of schedule, sometimes it's road wins, sometimes it's RPI, BPI, whatever. This year it was Top 50 wins. Why Top 50? Why not Top 40? Why not Top 68? Why not Top 75? In other words, what hurts the SEC is, if you take your Top 50 teams out there and you put the number of ACC or Big Ten or Big 12 or Pac-12 or whatever, we have a lot of teams that are between 50 and 68, and let me tell you something, it's really hard to beat one of those teams either at home or on the road. It's just as hard to beat a team that is in the 50s as a team that is in the 40s. Those teams get in the 40s because they live in a league that may have two or three teams that are ranked in the Top 10, and those teams that are ranked in the Top 10 bring those numbers down. So, the SEC gets hurt because they don't talk about Top 75 wins. Why Top 50? We've had some real dialogue. There are 68 teams in the tournament. Why not Top 68? When South Carolina can only get three teams on their schedule in the Top 50, but you look at how many teams they beat in the Top 75. Now all of a sudden it's completely different. So, the way the committee has a moving target and the way we look at it there are some things in the math that simply hurt the SEC, and are going to hurt the SEC before we ever toss a ball in the air."
On what the biggest thing was he learned from Pat Summitt...
"Pat Summitt saw things in people that they did not see in themselves. Pat Summitt never apologized to any one of her players for expecting the most out of them, demanding it and getting it. She was a great friend. She was as loyal as they came. If you were a friend of Pat Summitt's, she was always there for you. She was a great mother. But she had the ability to get the most out of her ladies as much as anybody. She was the most accomplished person in her field and the humblest woman I knew. She was the best at what she did. She was always reading, writing, asking questions, watching tapes, watching the Olympics, watching European basketball trying to stay on the cutting edge, always trying to get better. She created a brand called the Lady Vols. Enough said. You say Lady Vol, and Pat created a brand that said it all."
On who has to lead the way for Auburn to take the next step...
"When coaches lead, we can win games, When players lead, you can win championships. So, it has to come from within. I don't know which players it is going to be, but it has to come from within the framework of our team. We too young and we're still too new for me to know who that is going to be. I like our work ethic, I like our attitude, but I don't know which player or players it's going to come from, but it needs to come from within."
On the value of summer international tours...
"In my experience, it has definitely translated to more wins, no question. The chemistry, the bonding, the experiences way more than the practice time that you get. I've made a trip every four years no matter where I've been. We would take faculty with us. We would study the area where we were at, the history of the area where we were at. We tried to make it an experience those student-athletes would never forget. The competition itself was varied, but just seeing a different part of the world and experiencing a different culture together just brings you closer. Plus the other thing, too, our families travelled together, so my kids would get to go and they would be around the players. We would be around each other for a couple of weeks on the road. It brought us together. And with great consistency, I have seen a tremendous return that very season after we got off a summer tour."