Auburn HC Steven Pearl Breaks Down Standards: ‘I’m Not Asking a Ton’

In a season where much has been disappointing for the Auburn Tigers, disciplinary issues have run rampant. This is an area where Auburn head coach Steven Pearl and his players have faced significant scrutiny, so Pearl took the stand on Monday to detail his approach to the issue.

"We've got a standard and if guys are going to be making this amount of money, expectations and standards have to be held,” Pearl said. “That's how we're gonna run our program. I'm not asking a ton."

"We've got a standard and if guys are going to be making this amount of money, expectations and standards have to be held. That's how we're gonna run our program. I'm not asking a ton." - Steven Pearl on disciplining players at Auburn pic.twitter.com/JtTJFDcd5f
— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) March 2, 2026

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Though disciplinary issues have headlined the Tigers’ late season, these issues are far from new for this year’s squad. Even as far back as the beginning of the season, Tahaad Pettiford missed minutes and even came off the bench due to an undisclosed issue, before eventually being restored to full minutes a few games later.

More recently, though, Keyshawn Hall has dominated the headlines for the Tigers, as he missed over half of the second half of the Vanderbilt matchup and all of the Arkansas matchup due to yet another undisclosed issue.

After Hall’s benching, Pearl pleaded to the team to “stop having distractions for the next month.”

"We have a six-game stretch coming up that we've got to find a way to come together as a team, we've got to put all of our BS aside, anything that's coming in between this team, and just come as one," Pearl said. "... We've just got to stop with the distractions. We've got to be focused on basketball, and focused on getting better, and if we can do those things, this team's got a chance."

Though Hall has also since been restored to full minutes, Pearl has continued to make examples when he has been able to. Most recently, KeShawn Murphy, who boasted back-to-back double-doubles in the Tigers’ prior two matchups, was very limited in the Tigers’ matchup with Ole Miss despite suffering no apparent injury.

This is one of the few issues for the Tigers that has an explanation: Murphy was late to a film session.

“Murph(y)’s 20 minutes late to film on Thursday morning,” Pearl said after Saturday’s loss. “That's why he didn't start, and that kind of carried over into his performance tonight."

Pearl clarified on Monday that that was the first time Murphy had been late to an event all season and that it was "an honest mistake."

Critics have long since maintained that Pearl does not have control over his roster, but Pearl has been quite consistent in disciplining his players when he needs to. The question is, will this discipline stick, or will the Tigers continue to struggle with internal issues?