Bruce Pearl Interview (5-6-20)

We're going to be joined by Auburn head coach, Bruce Pearl, in just a few moments. As somebody who covered Olivier Saar for the last few years, I'm just so amazed by how quickly he developed with the Demon Deacons. Like just truly floored at somebody at the start of the year showed a lot of flashes of being good, showed a lot of flashes of being all ACC talent but would have a six turnover game mixed in there or would have a game where he doesn't score any points and you'd just be frustrated by him.

But he developed into a third team all ACC player. Steve Forbes was with us yesterday. He recruited him very hard to come back to the Deacs but chose to be a Kentucky Wildcat today instead.

But this is going to be a real treat. On us across the Piedmont Triad, on with us here in North Carolina to talk about his former assistant Steve Forbes is Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. And coach, I'm sure you'll be pleased to learn that it's taken no less than five days in Winston-Salem for coach Forbes to take a jab at Kentucky that ticks off Big Blue Nation.

Did he get that from you? I mean, I've not followed it very closely. I've just actually been listening to what you were saying. And so he's, again, just reacting to it. So one of his best players is leaving for Kentucky. Yeah, yeah, that's just what happened.

But Big Blue Nation, you know how they can be at times, you dealing with them at Tennessee and now with Auburn. But I just want to know this. Coach Forbes, he said to us that he's from the Billy Gillespie coaching tree of defense, the Greg Marshall tree of operations, and the Bruce Pearl tree of personality and energy. What can you tell me about the energy and personality he possesses?

Well, I can tell you that John Kerry made a great hire. And, and the great thing about Steve is he does possess lots of different qualities. You know, just for me, my mentor is Dr. Tom Davis. And the reason why I was successful was because of what he taught me. And I do think that Steve has had an incredible background working with people that have got you know, got some strengths and some abilities and, and proven track records, but also established himself as a not only in his when he was been a head coach, at every level, he's won every place he's been every place he's been guys winners, winners just know how to win.

So he is going to wear to the sleeve. He was going to bring it every day, I can hold his kids accountable, his kids gonna play harder and tougher. And, you know, they're not going to be pampered, they're gonna be loved, but they're gonna be held accountable.

And, you know, I, I guess I'm going to react once again to the news. I'm just hearing I hate that, you know, guys first take jobs, I guess, or committee, maybe, maybe some of those kids are vulnerable, because, you know, this in this world of sort of the transfer situation, you know, we worry so much about making the right decision, instead of just making the decisions that we make work. And I can tell you that I've had way more, if I had kids that thought about transferring, that stuck it out, and were rewarded, then have I had guys transfer, and more often than not, they didn't, they didn't help themselves.

So anyways, disappointed to see that. What do you what do you remember your first impression of Coach Forbes being? Well, I try to hire Steve on a couple occasions first time, when I first got the job at 10 Tennessee. And, and I couldn't get him from from he was at Texas A&M with Billy.

And then finally, I was able to convince him, you know, to bring the band back together. Myself and Jason Shay were were together at Iowa Jason was a was was shot together, Tennessee. Jason was an Iowa boy Steve's all the good identify with Iowa roots.

And so I recruited Steve and got him once and didn't get him another time. He is just, I mean, I think the biggest thing is unbelievable personality, great sense of humor, love of family. You know, you're getting a phenomenal family. And, and Steven's wife and the kids and they're all in. That's what Wake Forest getting, you know, and look, he and John Curry worked together before when I when we're when we were at Tennessee, and they've got history.

And they can tap into, you know, obviously tap into that history. Steve's gonna make you laugh. He's gonna make you cry. He's gonna make you roll your eyes. But but listen, he is going to win. I don't know how quickly they can do it. BAC is for real. ACC is for real. And he's got to rebuild.

But he will get it done. That's a funny thing, coach. I read a story. Dave Clawson is the football coach here at Wake Forest. He was an assistant for the football team back when you first took the job at Tennessee and you had coach Forbes as an assistant and John Curry was the associate AD at that time. So when you see the job opens up, and then you see that coach Forbes is John Curry's candidate, that was his hire, how surprised were you that those two got linked back together?

You know, I wasn't terribly surprised. Because we let John in when we were at Tennessee in the sense that he was in a senior associate AD, young but incredibly talented, hardworking, great character, really good feel. I knew John Curry was going to be a star. But I don't think that any coaching staff had ever quite let him into the process. Like we really let John in and did what we did together.

And what we did at Tennessee was special and hadn't been done in a long, long time. And John was a huge part of the solution. But we did that by bringing him into the family. And so he saw Steve, he saw Jason, he saw me, he saw Tony, he saw the way we worked, he saw the way we treated kids.

We lived through some difficult times and tough decisions. And I think in many ways, that John grew, but he got a chance to see Steve up close and personal. And I think that's why he felt so comfortable with his hire. Did you play a role vouching for Coach Forbes when he was getting out of JUCO, going to Wichita State, or in any of his two head coaching interviews? Look, I've always been a fan. I've always been an admirer.

I've always respected Steve. The stuff we did at Tennessee, 99% of it was incredible. And every now and then people talk about the mistake that we made at the end.

That's their issue. I am really proud of our program, my staff, our student athletes. Six years, six straight NCAA tournaments. And most of the kids graduating and really, really rebuilt that thing. And I'm proud of it. And the guys that worked with me should awfully be proud of it. And so I don't think I probably had much to do with his first job. Once he got down to Florida, I think he looked Steve better than himself. And he was never afraid to take a step back to move forward. And I think that speaks to his ego. He's got a confidence and a swagger, but also is humble and appreciative. And he'll go to work every day rewarding the Demon Deacons and the people at Wake Forest for giving him the opportunity of a lifetime.

I promise. Bruce Pearl's with us here on Sports Hub Triad. And speaking of his days in Florida and also what he did at Wichita State, Greg Marshall was with us last week. And he said that he just remembered him in Florida riding around a moped every single day while he was recruiting. But Coach Forbes got mad at that suggestion. He said it wasn't a moped.

It was a scooter that apparently you got for him and his staff back in 2008 or 2009. And there's just a ton of stories that we learn. But what's the best recruiting story you could share with us involving Coach Forbes? I want to involve you.

I want to finish that story. So the Great Pets Summit would win national championships at Tennessee, and our assistant coaches would get the use of a Mercedes Benz for a year. That was their award.

Really tough to compete with. So we won an SEC championship. And I went to a great friend of mine who was a car dealer in Knoxville, Doug White, his son, Andy, his son, Adam. And I said, you know, look, Doug, I can't get this program to national championship level. I can't get these guys a Mercedes. But what do you say? Can we get a Toyota? Can we get something? He said, you know what?

I can't quite go there. But I'm going to go ahead and sponsor these scooters. And so if I buy one, if you buy one, I'll give you two.

So I bought about a dozen of them and gained my strength coaches and my assistant coaches and our trainer. And little did I know that those guys love that, that they love that scooter and use that scooter about as much as the women's staff, you know, use those Mercedes Benz. Talk about gender equity. That's probably a Title 9 violation.

The women got Mercedes Benz and the men's basketball guys got scooters. I just tell you this. Steve is a relentless recruiter because it's about relationships.

He knows where everybody's buried. And guess what? You don't care about how many stars are in front of your name. And don't you guys worry about a three star because you'll turn out three to a five in a minute.

That's tremendous stuff. Before I let you go, coach, I'm somebody who used to cover women's basketball for a very long time. And Pat Summitt is just somebody I've heard fantastic stories about. Give me a sense for how much of an influence she was being side by side your basketball program and hers at the same time at Tennessee on the type of coach you are today.

Well, Pat, the number one thing I would say is, you know, you know, players don't care what you know, so you know what you care. Pat loved her girls. Second thing is she created a brand. It was called the Lady Vols.

The way they train, the way they play, the way they held themselves accountable. And probably the third thing would be simply this. She could get after those girls like nobody's business.

And they never looked at her sideways because she would be able to say, look, you signed up for this. You said this is what you want to do. You said you want to be coached.

You want to be pushed. And so she did. And, you know, for that, I will always, always remember her, you know, fondly for that. Coach, it's such a treat to have you on this show and to hear your voice. I told my girlfriend I was so excited that we were having Coach Pearl on the show and she said, the guy from The Bachelor?

I love being known, you know, for that guy, The Bachelor. But hey, man, you guys are in great shape. And call me back again. Love to talk some more with you.

That sounds great. Thank you, Coach, for doing this. You bet. That's Bruce Pearl, the head coach of the Auburn Tigers, spending some time here on sports.

I'm trying to talk about his former assistant, Coach Forbes. One day when I hit it big, Robert, I'm going to buy you, B.Soullier. I'm going to buy Aaron, Jenny. I'm going to buy you guys scooters.

How's that sound? I'm so excited. B.Dot's thrilled. I'm here for it. His mic's not on, but he's thrilled for it. Oh. Now your mic's on. Well, I'm here for it.

All right. Have you ever rode a scooter before? Hell yeah. Not like the Razor scooters, the ones that break your shins, but like the ones that like you really like. No, no. It is hard.

Well, down in Miami, if you if you count those when you're on the strip drop, riding around in a little scooter, so you just get chicks that hop on the back of it and woohoo. It's a good note right there. Yep. So B.Dot's already here in the studio. But coming up, he's going to take me to grammar school. It's our earliest grammar school session yet. On a Wednesday drive.