Bruce Pearl: We 'avoided potential disaster' with roster

AUBURN -- Bruce Pearl inherited a mess when he took over at Auburn and he's managed to clean up a lot of it in a short period of time.

The additions of fifth-year transfers Antoine Mason and K.C. Ross-Miller, junior college transfer Cinmeon Bowers and signee T.J. Lang have mitigated what Pearl called a "potential disaster" for the Tigers.

"The roster, from a standpoint of being competitive, wasn't there. It wasn't there," Pearl said on SiriusXM's College Sports Nation on Monday. "So we got a couple of really good players that are coming back and we've added three or four really good players in this first recruiting class, but it takes more than six or seven guys. So where will those guys step up from? That's going to be the big question mark.

"I think what we've done is we have avoided a potential disaster, because it could have been absolute disastrous for Auburn basketball because of the roster."

There was some attrition with Benas Griciunas transferring to Charlotte, Sam Logwood failing to qualify and now committed to New Mexico and Dion Wade transferring to Miami (Ohio).

Mason, the nation's No. 2 scorer last season, and Ross-Miller in particular, give Pearl immediate help and potentially two starters to join Tahj Shamsid-Deen and K.T. Harrell. Bowers was very important as well, as Auburn has no proven inside presence.

"I think I can put four or five guys on the floor that are SEC-caliber guards – big, physical kids," Pearl said. "The front line is young and not as talented. So that's going to be a question. We cannot afford an injury to that front line."

The roster is only part of the massive remodeling Pearl has been doing on the Plains. From the changes to the locker room and coaching offices to a daunting 13-game non-conference slate, Pearl has been hard at work in his five months on the job and quickly invigorated the fan base.

"The ticket sales for men's basketball us up 200 percent and enthusiasm a 1,000 percent," Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs said. "I've never in my career here seen so much enthusiasm for men's basketball."

Next comes the end of Pearl's three-year NCAA show-cause penalty, which concludes at Midnight Sunday morning. Pearl says he has catching up to do, and it will start immediately.

"Midnight Saturday night and Sunday morning we'll be in the office at 12:01, they'll be lined up outside the door," he said. "I got a lot of catching up to do. We'll have some visits. We'll have a lot of phone calls and texts to make and I got a lot of people to reach out to and thank for their patience because I've not been able to reach out to them since I got the job here at Auburn."