What Veteran Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes Said About Auburn HC Steven Pearl

Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes has had plenty of coaching matchups against the Pearl family in his time leading the Volunteers.

Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes, left, has had plenty of coaching matchups against the Pearl family in his time leading the Volunteers. | Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel , Knoxville News Sentinel via Imagn Content Services, LLC

The Auburn Tigers will head to Knoxville on Saturday to take on Tennessee with a whole new level of momentum after taking down the Texas Longhorns in a massive comeback victory. Though the Tigers are certainly hot right now, their upcoming matchup against Tennessee will still be no walk in the park.

On Friday, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes sat down with the press and previewed his team’s upcoming game, during which he praised first-year head coach Steven Pearl.

“Steven [Pearl] has done a really good job,” he said. “I think that they continue to get better all year, which that's what you're looking for. And (they're) playing with confidence. And he does, again, a terrific job of getting his guys where he wants them to be. And they're doing a lot of really good things.”

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71-year-old Barnes, a veteran of the industry, has been coaching since 1977, which has allowed him to see many significant coaching changes across college basketball. This offseason, the biggest coaching change came at Auburn with Bruce Pearl stepping down and his son, Steven, taking over.

Steven Pearl, a longtime Auburn assistant, has the tools to carry over the success from his father's tenure, Barnes said.

“Steven was with Bruce for a long time, and had a chance to be a huge part of all their success,” he said. “And I think that he has still stuck to some of the things they've done, but yet he's put his own touch to it too, which I'm sure his dad is proud of. 

“And they've just continued to get better. And I think if you go back and look at all of Bruce's teams too, they did that. They got better as the year went on. And when I watched from Auburn, they've done the same thing."

The Tigers got off to a rough start this season, dropping games in blowout fashion to top teams while barely edging out lower-level teams like Bethune-Cookman. Despite such a slow start and a roster returning just one scholarship player, Pearl’s team has come into its own in recent games.

The Tigers are now the proud owners of a four-game in-conference win streak, including a huge win over No. 16 Florida and the aforementioned comeback victory against the Longhorns. Despite so much momentum, Barnes didn’t seem to be all that concerned with how it would affect the game.

“I mean, it's the next game,” he said. “Each game takes on its own personality… I think about every four games is decided by a bucket. And that's how competitive this league is… They said they've won four in a row and are playing great basketball. And we've had two good road wins, hard-fought. And that doesn't mean anything if we come here and are not ready to play. Because believe me, Auburn's good enough to beat any team they play in the country."

Tipoff for this massive matchup in Knoxville is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CST and will be broadcast on ESPN.