Bruce Pearl Is the Best Coach in Team Sports That Nobody Properly Acknowledges

After beating Kentucky on Saturday, Auburn is No. 1 in the AP Top 25 for the first time in school history. With the Tigers atop the polls, Bruce Pearl has now led two schools (Tennessee in 2008) to their first-ever No. 1 ranking.

I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate what Pearl has been able to do in his career. First, he won a Division II national title at Southern Indiana. Then he took all three Division I schools he's coached to their furthest round of the NCAA Tournament in school history — Milwaukee to the Sweet Sixteen in 2005, Tennessee to the Elite Eight in 2010 and Auburn to the Final Four in 2019. And he's now had two No. 1-ranked teams at schools where that had never previously been done.

I would contend that once Coach K retires after this season, there's a very strong argument that Pearl is the best coach in college basketball. Sure, he may cheat his ass off to get players on campus, but once he gets them there, he's as good of a guy as you'll find in the country at getting them to gel and maximize their potential.

I strongly believe Tennessee would be some degree of a college basketball power with Pearl still at the helm today if he hadn't lied to the NCAA about having Aaron Craft at a cookout, but that is what is. It sucks watching him take a school like Auburn and turn it into the best team in the country, but you can't deny he's one of the best coaches in the game.

If the NCAA wanted to do some more digging around why guys like Jabari Smith are ending up on The Plains, though, I wouldn't necessarily be upset.