Auburn officially hired Bruce Pearl on Tuesday. An irrelevant program that has 18 conference wins, total, in the last four years could not do better than a two-time SEC coach of the year, no matter how much baggage he has to check on the flight to Alabama.
So Athletic Director Jay Jacobs moved swiftly to fire Tony Barbee and just as quickly moved past Pearl’s track record of rules violations to his track record of NCAA tournament bids and the hope that provides.