"Being pi***d off gives you a little bit of an edge": Bruce Pearl gets honest on Auburn's motivation ahead of SEC Tournament

Auburn coach Bruce Pearl has opened up on the motivation for his players ahead of the SEC Tournament. The Tigers sealed the outright title with a full week remaining in the regular season, but then lost their past two games against No. 14 Texas A&M and No. 5 Alabama.

During an appearance on "The Paul Finebaum Show" on Monday afternoon, Pearl explained how he plans to use Auburn's two-game losing streak to his advantage entering the postseason.

"We have lost the last two games, we’re not happy about it,” Pearl said (1:13). "We're a little pi***d off about it and I hope that that carries us through the tournament, because sometimes being pi***d off gives you a little bit of an edge."

After losing their final two regular-season games, the Tigers dropped from the No. 1 spot in the AP poll, a position they held for eight weeks, to No. 3 in the rankings.

Nonetheless, Auburn (27-4, 15-3) will hold the top-seed entering the SEC Tournament after winning the regular-season title.

Therefore, the Tigers will get automatic qualification in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament, along with No. 2 seed Florida, No. 3 seed Alabama and No. 4 seed Tennessee, without playing in the first two rounds.

Bruce Pearl wins SEC Coach of the Year award after fabulous regular-season run with Auburn

Auburn HC Bruce Pearl - Source: Imagn

On Monday, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl was recognized as the 2025 SEC Coach of the Year after leading the Tigers to the regular-season title. This is the fourth time in his career that Pearl has been named coach of the year, and the second time at Auburn.

“It’s not something you take for granted,” Pearl said to Finebaum. “I’ve won one Coach of the Year award at Auburn, and we’ve won the league championship four times. So, it’s not an automatic.”

Now, Pearl will focus on guiding Auburn to the SEC Tournament title, before potentially thinking about winning his first national title.