Bruce Pearl reveals why he cried after Auburn Tigers beat Mark Pope's Kentucky at Rupp Arena

After leading Auburn to 27-4 overall record, a record for the program in terms of regular season wins, basketball coach Bruce Pearl ended the regular season with a tough overtime 93-91 loss to Alabama. However, the team enters SEC Tournament as the No .1 seed, while Pearl received his fourth SEC Coach of the Year honor.

Bruce Pearl's most emotional moment of the season came after he beat Mark Pope's Kentucky 94-78, ending the 37-year drought for the program at Rupp Arena. It was so much that he cried after the game. Ten days later, Pearl revealed why he got emotional after beating Pope and the Wildcats.

"I think just, um, I guess the emotion of it all—the, the, the—being, being, you know, really, really grateful, Dan," Pearl said on the Dan Patrick show (2:40 onwards). "I think what we do as we work in this, this, this ministry or in this thing about coaching, we are built to win and compete for championships — we really, truly are.

"At the end of the day, there was a championship that could be won. I didn't cry when we won the Maui Invitational—you know, that wasn’t big enough. ... And I—I probably just cried out of gratitude, out of gratefulness."

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Bruce Pearl revealed who he voted for SEC Coach of the Year

After winning the SEC Coach of the Year honor for the fourth time in his career, Bruce Pearl, on the Paul Finebaum show on Monday, soaked in the moment.

“It’s not something you take for granted,” Pearl said on the show. “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.”

When asked who he voted for, the Auburn coach revealed that it was rival coach Todd Golden of the Florida Gators, who also finished the regular season 27-4. Interestingly, Golden worked with Auburn at Auburn from 2014-2016.

“They were probably picked sixth or seventh, and they finished second,” Pearl said. “We were probably picked second or third. We finished first. So, I don’t take it for granted.”

Bruce Pearl is relaxed at the moment as the SEC Tournament kicks off. The Tigers enter the SEC Tournament on the back of double bye and after initial rounds, it will be Ole Miss, Arkansas or South Carolina, who plays them on Friday.