Bruce Pearl has epic meltdown as Auburn's NCAA Tournament hopes crash and burn

Year one of the Nepo Baby era on the Plains has not gone according to plan. It may have officially ended on Thursday in Nashville.

Needing a win to assure itself an NCAA Tournament bid, Auburn surrendered a 19-0 second-half run to Tennessee in the second round of the SEC Tournament, blowing an 11-point lead and losing 72-62.

Perhaps nobody took the loss harder than Bruce Pearl, the former Auburn coach and father of current head coach Steven Pearl, who not only whined on social media about the officiating but was caught on camera berating the officials from behind the Auburn bench.

WARNING: The below video contains strong language:

Someone hasn't read their creed recently.

Auburn's NCAA Tournament bubble may have burst with loss to Tennessee

It's easy to see why both Pearls were so angry. The elder Pearl was berating officials from the stands, while the younger received a technical foul during the second half for doing the same from the bench. Tennessee plays a physical brand of basketball that can certainly ruffle some feathers, especially when you are playing for your NCAA Tournament lives.

The Pearls and Auburn fans will scream about their quality wins in hopes the selection committee ignores the 16 losses. Teams with that amount of defeats do not usually receive at-large bids to the Big Dance, but this is a particularly weak bubble.

Auburn does not deserve to go to the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers lost nine of their final 12 games and looked every bit like a disinterested team down the stretch, and that was readily evident once they faced the first bit of adversity against the Vols on Thursday afternoon.

The Steven Pearl era has gotten off to a rocky start, regardless of whether Auburn hears its name get called on Sunday. Initial excitement about "business as usual" on the Plains with the transition from father to son has been replaced with the reality that the Tigers made a huge mistake by handing out a five-year contract to someone with no head coaching experience.

Going from the Final Four to missing the tournament in a year's time is a massive fall from grace. And it might not come close to the depths of despair the program could be headed toward.