Five Important Things Auburn HC Steven Pearl Said During SEC Media Days

While the season on the gridiron is in midseason form, there’s another program that will be getting underway in the near future for the Auburn Tigers: men’s basketball.

Head coach Steven Pearl and guards Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin Overton made the short trip to Birmingham to speak on behalf of the Tigers on Tuesday. Pearl had plenty to mention in his first offseason as head coach, looking to spark momentum from the NIT win at the end of last season.

From his time on the mic on Tuesday, here are five important things that he mentioned.

“Excited to have been able to have an offseason. You don’t realize how valuable an offseason is until you have one, and really excited about this group.”

As the story goes, Pearl was thrusted into the head coaching role when his father, Bruce, abruptly retired last September. From the time that he took the position, he only had six weeks to get the team in line.

This 2026 offseason brought him three months more preparation for a new season.

Especially with a team that made a Final Four two seasons ago, the days slowed for the second-year head coach, and Pearl will take those growing pains that he suffered in 2025-26 to bring the Tigers back to an NCAA Tournament mainstay.

“If people want to question why we play in the NIT, I think that was a great reason right there, being able to keep those two guys, I think, allowed them to feel good and be able to trust the things that we were doing at Auburn.”

Pearl is referring to his two guards, Pettiford and Overton, who saw the vision that he was looking to build on during the postseason tournament.

When many teams opted out of playing to begin their respective offseasons, the backcourt believed in playing together to figure out what works for the next season. Both had the chance to hit the transfer portal, but the chemistry built from a postseason trophy helped change that.

There are two different trophies that Pettiford and Overton are looking for in this season, though: an SEC Championship and an NCAA Tournament championship. Pearl thinks he has the group to compete for either.

“I’m in a place now this year that we feel like we have 13 guys who could really play meaningful minutes and contribute for us this year.”

Basketball runs from November to April, and Auburn couldn’t slip up when it came to injuries last season. That’s the complete opposite in this season.

Now, Pearl would later say that 13 guys won’t play with each game, but the depth that he has is comfortable enough for a long season. The retention he got from players like Pettiford and Overton, as well as the six stable transfers Auburn received through the portal, will help that rotation this season.

The best teams in college basketball don’t rely on just the top six guys. Look at how Michigan or even Florida a season ago were able to do that. Auburn’s depth will be tested, and if it succeeds, it helps the Tigers’ ceiling this year.

“It was great to have five additional reps to be able to compete and coach and be in difficult situations and have to motivate and rally a team when they don’t want to be there.”

Unlike many college basketball coaches, Pearl wanted to put his team through the fire, playing in the NIT despite missing out closely on the NCAA Tournament. While many criticized, it ended up paying off.

Now, the Tigers have more momentum than ever before entering a season with Pearl at the helm. However, the point of reflection that he makes here on Tuesday shows that while he wants the team to improve, he wants to improve long-term as well.

Look for that experience from the NIT to show at some point, whether down the stretch of the SEC schedule or after coming off of consecutive losses. I think we will see that growth sooner than later, though.

“One of the things that we really had to address right away was our ability to protect the rim. We had no shot-blocking; Tahaad might have been our best shot-blocker at 6-foot-1, and that’s a problem.”

Auburn got three centers in the transfer portal: Creighton’s Owen Freeman, Santa Clara’s Bukky Okoye and European transfer Narcisse Ngoy. That was the focal point of Pearl’s transfer strategy, and it paid off.

He did mention that Freeman would have to potentially begin the year on a minute-restriction, but the group now has a balance of speed and size between its frontcourt and backcourt. The Tigers struggled to keep up against top forwards and centers a season ago, and Pearl is using length to change that.

There’s an excitement with this blend for Auburn in 2026-27, but it will need to show it on the court if it wants to enter March with some noise behind it.

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