No. 1 ranked Auburn's HC Bruce Pearl says SEC basketball is as brutal as SEC football

Top-ranked Auburn men's basketball head coach, Bruce Pearl compared SEC basketball and SEC football in terms of schedules. Pearl concluded that the men's basketball schedule in the SEC reminded him of football.

In a chat with Coach K which was posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, Jan. 25, Pearl talked about the tough January schedules in both sports.

“It does remind me a little bit of SEC football, in a sense that if you look at, just take Georgia and Ohio State, you know, Ohio State has a couple of big games in the Big Ten, you know, obviously, Michigan’s a big game, Penn State’s a big game, you know,” he said.

“But, you know, I don’t know the strength of the football conference. It’s not like the SEC and so every single Saturday, you got a chance to get physically whooped, mentally whooped."

Pearl also argued about how the tough matchups between SEC teams make winning in the league difficult.

“We’ll have to see what that does, how that plays out, whether or not we’re worn out physically, whether we’re worn out mentally, but that’s the deal,” he said.

“And matchups matter. You know, there’s certain people who think it’s about, well, you didn’t get them ready to play. What we do works better against some people than it does others. And some people’s stuff bothers us more than it bothers everybody else. So, matchups matter.”

Auburn are 18-1 this season and are on the road to play unranked LSU (12-7) on Wednesday, Jan. 29.

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Auburn's Bruce Pearl rated one of the best coaches in program's history

Auburn men's basketball maintained the top spot at the Associated Press Top 25 men's basketball ranking for the third week under Bruce Pearl's leadership. Pearl became the winningest coach in program history after clinching his 214th victory with the Tigers, becoming the only coach ever to take them to a Final Four. He has also won two SEC Tournament titles with Auburn.

SEC sports analyst Paul Finebaum believes the Auburn head coach deserves a place in the prestigious Mount Rushmore of the program's best coaches regardless of the sports.

“I think he would be on the Mount Rushmore, which means there’s only three other spots,” the SEC Network talking head said. “I think the fact that he’s done it in basketball is remarkable."

"I think the Bruce Pearl story is even more remarkable because of the circumstances. Exactly 10 years ago when he arrived there, it was a close call."

"It was no slam dunk that he would even get the job because he had to get personal sign off from the commissioner of the SEC at the time, Mike Slive, who was still angry with him for lying five years earlier in what should have been a three-game suspension at Tennessee and ended up in a firing a three-year show cause."

Pearl joined Auburn after coaching Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Tennessee. He is currently in his 11th season with the Tigers where they have remained unbeaten in the SEC so far.