Bruce Pearl addresses successor, eventual retirement: 'Not that much longer'

Bruce Pearl knows he doesn’t have too long left in his coaching career, with nearly a half-century in coaching around the college level and over two decades as a head coach. When he does call it, though, Auburn will, among other candidates, have several of those from his staff that he thinks they could consider.

Being a guest on ‘Inside College Basketball Now’ with Jon Rothstein on Thursday, Pearl discussed his future in the sport now at the age of 65. He said that, as far as his eventual successor as head coach of the Tigers, it would obviously mean a lot to him if one of his staff members eventually took his place down on The Plains.

“Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Why wouldn’t I?” Pearl said. “Look, we’ve worked really hard to build this program where it’s at. It would certainly make a great deal of sense. I’ve got a great staff right here. And, Steven Pearl is in position to be somebody that I know they would consider.

“We don’t have a lot of guys out there, and part of the season why I don’t think we do is because guys have stayed with us for a long, long time and that’s good. Their families were happy here. I could have a lot of other coaches, but my guys have been with me 10, 11 years and you’re beginning to see some young coaches being pretty successful that have left our program and you’re going to continue to see that in the future.”

But, as far as himself, Pearl says he won’t be in the profession for much longer at this point in his life. That’s also because of where his career is, too, as he wants to go at his time and on his terms, with his recent run at Auburn still having him among the best coaches in all of college basketball.

“Not that much longer. And, just – I think it’s kind of a balance of life, of time of work,” Pearl said. “I love Auburn. I truly do. Auburn has been unbelievable for us and our family. Part of the thing is I also want to do it when I’m on top of my game. You know, all coaches? You know, we want to be on top of our game because we owe that to our players and our fans.”

Over 21 seasons as a head coach, Pearl is 477-224 (.680) over stops at Milwaukee, Tennessee, and Auburn. That includes a record of 246-125 (.663) with the Tigers, being their most successful coach in school history in wins, conference titles with five total, six appearances in the NCAA Tournament, and two trips to the Final Four. This past season was then the best of his coaching career as Auburn went 32-6 (.842), won the regular-season title in the SEC, and was the No. 1 overall seed in March Madness in making it to the national semifinals.

Pearl has a 12th season ahead at Auburn, with just over a month before the preseason begins for the Tigers. However, from there, he won’t know who will be their head coach too far into the future from now.