Bruce Pearl just wants everyone to follow NCAA rules. Except for him, of course.
Pearl recently joined Dan Dakich's podcast and voiced his displeasure over Nate Oats and Alabama adding Charles Bediako to the roster. Bediako is not considered eligibile by the NCAA, but was granted two temporary restraining orders against the NCAA that has allowed him to play Alabama's last three games. He'll play at least one more game on Wednesday against Texas A&M before his court date on Friday, which will determine whether he will be granted an injunction against the NCAA that will allow him eligibility for the remainder of the season.
The NCAA, per the restraining order, is barred from any penalties or the threat of penalties against Alabama for playing Bediako during the restraining order period.
But you'll have to forgive Pearl, who has never had a firm understanding of the rules. And after a long tenure at Auburn, now coached by his son, he's predisposed to want the worst for Alabama, no matter how hypocritical it makes him look. His whole career has been built on being a hypocrite, so why would that change in retirement?
“I think they should consider it. I think it’s just something that should be talked about,” Pearl said of the NCAA keeping Alabama out of the NCAA Tournament.
Bruce Pearl groveling to the NCAA is rich coming from a multi-time rule-breaker
Auburn fans try to sweep it under the rug, but not many college basketball coaches have a more checkered past than Pearl. Decades of rule-breaking have been well documented.
An SB Nation post from 2019 does a good job of breaking it all down.
From taping a phone conversation with Indiana recruit Deon Thomas and snitching on the Hoosiers to the NCAA in 1989 to his own run-ins with the NCAA at every stop of his Division I head coaching career, Pearl has never hesitated to thumb up his nose at NCAA rules while complaining about others playing the same game.
Pearl committed a minor NCAA violation at UW-Milwaukee in 2004 that foreshadowed the issues he would have in Knoxville and Auburn.
He was fired by Tennessee in 2011 over NCAA violations and was hit by a three-year show-cause. He found the perfect fit at Auburn to rebound, a place well known for hypocrisy and valuing winning over everything else.
Controversy followed Pearl at Auburn. Three of his assistants were subject to the FBI's probe of college basketball in 2017 over bribery. Pearl was nearly fired by Auburn as a result, but they ultimately stuck by him. The Tigers were hit with four years of probation in 2021, with Pearl serving a short suspension as a result.
All of this is, of course, ignored by Auburn fans. Pearl led the program to unprecedented heights at a place that never cared about basketball. Winning is the cure for everything, after all.
A career of shadiness, snitching, and flagrant rule-breaking doesn't exaclty make Pearl the voice of reason in college basketball. His disdain for Auburn's chief rival - whom he had a losing record against during his career on the Plains - only serves to further make his comments sound like a desperate attempt to undermine the Crimson Tide.
Because that would benefit Auburn and the nepo baby currently in charge.