Bruce Pearl would 'be surprised' if he coached Auburn through end of current contract term

Bruce Pearl knows the end is near in his illustrious 32-year collegiate head coaching career. But the 65-year-old Auburn men’s basketball coach isn’t ready to hang up his whistle just yet.

Pearl sent shockwaves through the Plains on Thursday following a recent appearance on Inside College Basketball Now with Jon Rothstein. There, the Tigers’ coach for the past 11 seasons seemed to suggest he wouldn’t be coaching “that much longer” amid a discussion about a potential succession plan involving his son and longtime Tigers assistant Steven Pearl.

During a subsequent appearance on Thursday’s The Paul Finebaum Show on the SEC Network, Pearl clarified his comments but didn’t necessarily shut down the retirement talk. In fact, Pearl practically doubled down by suggesting he doesn’t expect to fulfill the final five years of his current contract.

“I did that interview like a month and a half ago, and in like a 45-minute interview, it was one of a lot of questions and he asked me how much longer do you think you’re going to coach, and I probably said: ‘You know, not that much longer,’” Pearl told Finebaum. “(And) there’s some truth to that, but I love Auburn. I’ve liked every place I’ve been, but this place has been obviously really, really special. I like our team, I love our coaching staff.

“So it was just one answer to one question, and it’s true. I’ve got five years left on my contract, and I’d be surprised if I were to last five years, let’s just put it that way.”

Pearl currently has five seasons remaining on an eight-year, $50.2 million extension signed in 2022. That would keep him under contract through the end of the 2029-30 college basketball season.

Pearl is 706-268 (.725) across 32 seasons as a collegiate head basketball coach, including 244-123 in 11 years at Auburn. Former Tigers athletic director Jay Jacobs hired Pearl in March 2014, despite still having five months remaining on a three-year show-cause order levied by the NCAA in 2011. That was after allegedly lying to NCAA investigators about an infamous 2008 cookout involving then-high school junior Aaron Craft when he was head coach at Tennessee.

Pearl went 145-61 (.704) in six seasons with the Volunteers between 2005-06 and 2010-11. That was following a four-year stint at Milwaukee (2001-05) and nine years at Southern Indiana (1992-2001).

Ahead of Year 12 on the Plains, Pearl and the Tigers are coming off the program’s second-ever Final Four appearance, the first also coming under Pearl in 2019. That comes after winning the SEC regular-season title for the second time in the last four seasons and securing the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed with a 32-6 overall record and 15-3 mark in SEC play.