Bruce Pearl talks Tahaad Pettiford, being the 'hardest' team to predict next season and more

Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl spoke to the media for a few minutes at the Jimmy Rane Foundation banquet on Thursday night.

Pearl spoke about Tahaad Pettiford and his NBA flirtations, rebuilding an entire roster and more. Here are the high points of what Pearl had to say, with quotes courtesy of video by WSFA and AL.com.

Pettiford performed well on Wednesday. I wrote about that and what sources inside the Pettiford camp were telling Auburn Live. On Thursday, Pettiford struggled a bit during the second scrimmage. Pearl echoed what we have reported about Pettiford and his plan.

“Tahaad had a great day (Wednesday). Nothing has really changed. If Tahaad can get a first-round guarantee contract, then I think he will go and should go. If he doesn’t, with NIL and the opportunity to come back to Auburn, he would be happy. He wants to come back. He’s ready. He’s been overlooked his whole life because he’s 6-foot tall. There aren’t but about four or five teams in the NBA that would even consider taking a point guard under about 6-foot-5. The number of teams he can go to is just limited.

“So, we’ll get good information from the NBA. If he decides to come back to Auburn, we’ll be a lot better team. He will take advantage of the year and get bigger and stronger. When you sign you first contract, you have the chance to get rich. When you sign your second and third contract, you have the chance to get wealthy. It’s about that second and third contract. He won’t leave unless he’s in a really good spot. We’ll know in the next couple of weeks.

“We won’t find anybody quite as good as Tahaad, but we are absolutely in conversations with some players that know, if Tahaad stays, this is an option.”

Regarding rebuilding the roster, not many coaching staffs have had to do what Pearl and Co. have done this offseason. Five transfers in, three high-school signees in, another JUCO standout in, plus another signee to come (possibly from the international ranks), and what Auburn puts on the floor next season will be an entirely different team, with the exception of Pettiford, if he returns.

“You know me, there hasn’t been an offseason yet. I’m not complaining. I feel good. I don’t feel too terribly tired. We had a long season and thank God we had a long season. We played all the way into April. I have never had to replace almost my entire roster before.

“We knew that this year — we knew last year had the chance to be a special team because we had a good team, veteran team, and we decided to put a lot of eggs in that basket and see if we can make a run, and we did.

“As a result, we’ve had to replace a lot of folks. I think we’ve done well so far. We will absolutely be the hardest team going into next year to predict what kind of year we have. It will have to be a team that gets better throughout the season because they are brand spankin’ new.”

Longtime assistant Chad Prewett announced on Wednesday night he was stepping away from basketball to pursue opportunities in ministry. Pearl will always be thankful for Prewett’s contributions over the last decade.

“Everybody knew when I hired Chad Prewett that I was hiring a great man. He coached high school men and women — and what they didn’t know is what a great basketball mind he had. When you try to establish a culture of family and faith, you have to do that based on everybody you hired and surround yourself with. It wasn’t a surprise to me at all. Chad and I have been talking about this for years. At some point, I knew he would take that leap of faith.

“We’ve been talking all year about ‘Calling God’ and there’s no question God was calling Chad that it was time, time to take everything you’ve done in the world of basketball and give to me full time. That whole program with Unite has been a great, great program. He and his wife have taken that throughout the country.”

And you knew Pearl would be asked about the departed Chad Baker-Mazara, who transferred to Southern Cal. Like Aden Holloway after he left for Alabama, Pearl’s comments about Baker-Mazara leaving were short and sweet.

“Well, I just want to wish him well. He was with us for two years and we won an SEC tournament championship, SEC regular season championship and a trip the Final Four.”