Bruce Pearl rebuilding Auburn basketball one wall at a time

AUBURN –Bruce Pearl doesn't know why things looked the way they did in the Auburn men's basketball locker room, and he doesn't really care.

"It's terrible," he told a contractor installing new artwork last week, referring to the dull photos of several players practicing in an empty arena above their respective lockers.

Pearl wants the room to have life and excitement. He wants the players to see themselves, and the program, in a more positive light.

It's why Pearl had what were previously blank walls in the Auburn locker room covered with ceiling-to-floor graphic artwork.

Immediately inside is a wall now emblazoned with "From Auburn to NBA," featuring the likes of Marquis Daniels, Charles Barkley, Wesley Person and Chuck Person.

"I want our players to see, in larger than life terms, the fact that there is great history and tradition of some tremendous players having gone here and played in the NBA," Pearl said. "I want them on the locker room wall, and they are – now."

Directly across from the locker room is a message: Defense and rebounding win championships. On the back of the player's lounge, there's the Auburn Creed is on a wall, along which a big SEC logo was being installed as of last week.

"We are a part of the greatest athletic conference in intercollegiate athletics and you don't see the SEC anywhere and the schools that are listed," Pearl said. "There's a larger than life SEC logo in our locker room. I want to see the SEC standings; I want to look at them every day. I want to look at – all year, all of the entire offseason – I want to see where we finished.

"I want to have to look at that."

Auburn finished last season 12th in the SEC and was knocked out the conference tournament in the first round for the fourth time in as many years under former coach Tony Barbee, who was fired less than two hours later.

Pearl has gone about rebuilding the beleaguered program from the ground up.

In less than five months on the job, Pearl and his staff have already torn down many of the walls Barbee and his staff never managed to, like recruiting and scheduling.

Even though Pearl, whose NCAA show-cause penalty expires on Aug. 24, can't recruit, his staff managed to land some of the top talent still available, including junior college forward Cinmeon Bowers and transfers Antoine Mason and K.C. Ross-Miller, all of whom will have prominent roles this season.

"We obviously have really helped our backcourt with depth and with experience and this is going to be a fun backcourt to coach," Pearl said. "We have size, we have strength, we're a physical backcourt; there's enough speed and athleticism, we can shoot. There are five or six really good guards.

"Therefore there's a chance we can play some small ball; put the best players on the floor. That just is exciting; it's an exciting style of basketball."

With only Tahj Shamsid-Deen and Montgomery native K.T. Harrell back in the starting lineup from a year ago, Pearl inherited a roster in massive need of an overhaul. The Tigers desperately needed size and that's where the 6-foot-7 Bowers, who averaged 12.4 points and 8.9 rebounds at Chipola (Florida) College last season, comes in.

"Cinmeon Bowers is as good as advertised but he's also going to be one of the shortest inside players in the league," Pearl said. "But he knows how to use his body, his size, his strength and he's got skills. He's a playmaker."

After summer workouts Pearl has a better feel from what his team will look like this season. He's excited, but also cautious.

"Right now front line length and back court speed and quickness are the two things that can bother us," he said. "I think our guards are big enough, strong enough, physical enough. ... We're going to have to play a more physical brand of basketball in the backcourt, because our guys will put some wood on you, but can they keep quicker, smaller guards in front of them?"

Pearl's asked Auburn fans not to be patient, but to "stick with us" as he rebuilds. The new personnel will help, a lot, but the Tigers are not there yet – not by a long shot.

"We've made a lot of progress, there's no question, but at the same time the national media in most of the preseason rankings will force us to realize exactly where we're still looked at, where we're still perceived," Pearl said, citing a preseason power ranking by CBS' Jon Rothstein that had Auburn No. 13 in the SEC.

Pearl has finalized Auburn's schedule, which is expected to be formally announced this week.

The energy he's brought to the program has led to not only greater season ticket sales, but also the level of tickets.

Auburn has added 30 additional floor seats, 24 baseline and six courtside, and only two were not sold as of Friday, according to an athletic department official.

Tigers Unlimited Fund members in the Talon, Heisman and Shug Jordan Societies are eligible to purchase the remaining seats, which go for $2,600 each for courtside and $2,100 for baseline.

The new seats add $66,000 in revenue to the program this year, a drop in the bucket to a $100 million athletic department, but another step in the right direction.

In the meanwhile Pearl has been crisscrossing the state on a near daily basis, speaking to various different groups, attending the SEC's first-year coaches meeting with his Steven in July, and always selling the program.

He thinks Kentucky, Florida, Arkansas, Georgia and LSU could make the NCAA Tournament this year, and feels the bottom of the SEC – Mississippi State, South Carolina, Texas A&M and Auburn – all improved.

It will take a lot for the Tigers to climb the ranks far enough to make a postseason tournament in Pearl's first year, but he's taken his team to the postseason in 18 of 19 years.

Pearl may be the new face of the Auburn basketball program but other than if you see him around Auburn Arena, and chances are you might, he's not featured anywhere in the building.

"We haven't done anything yet," Pearl said. "You won't see my picture until maybe you get to my office. It's not about us, it's about Auburn basketball, and then you know what? Save me a wall.

"We'll put some stuff up there."