Bruce Pearl, whose run of more than two decades as a men’s basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Tennessee and Auburn included a pair of Final Four runs, will reportedly retire as head coach at Auburn, according to ESPN.
His departure opens the door for his son, Steven, to take the reins of the Auburn program.
The 65-year-old Pearl, who has 701 career victories at the Division I level and has appeared in the NCAA Tournament 14 times, began his DI career in Milwaukee, a four-year run from 2001 through 2005 that included two unforgettable appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including a run to the Sweet 16.
The 2002-03 Panthers, after winning the Horizon League Tournament, lost in a heartbreaker to Notre Dame in the first round when Dylan Page’s potential game-winning basket rolled off the rim at the buzzer.
Two years later, Milwaukee went back to the Big Dance and this time left a major impression, beating Alabama and Boston College to reach the Sweet 16, where UWM lost to eventual national runner-up Illinois, 77-63.
Pearl left for Tennessee thereafter, but UWM went back to the second round of the tournament the following year under new coach Rob Jeter, upsetting Oklahoma in the first round.
Pearl spent six seasons at Tennessee, though he was fired in 2011 after NCAA recruiting violations came to light, and the NCAA gave him a three-year show-cause penalty that expired in 2014, the same year Auburn hired him.
Pearl came to the Panthers program from Southern Indiana, where he won four conference titles and once earned NCAA Division II coach of the year from the National Association of Basketball Coaches after leading SIU to a DII national championship. He also led the Screaming Eagles to a runner-up finish the year before.
Most suspected Pearl had been “blackballed” from his days as an Iowa assistant, when he handed secret recordings between a recruit and an Illinois assistant coach to the NCAA after Iowa lost the recruiting battle; the backlash seemingly contributed to Pearl’s long wait for a Division I job.
He was named the Division I Coach of the Year last year by the Associated Press and NABC after leading Auburn to a No. 1 seed in the tournament and a trip to the Final Four, before a loss to eventual champion Florida. His squad in 2019 reached the national semifinal in a heartbreaking 63-62 loss to Virginia, which also went on to win the title.
Pearl’s teams have four Southeastern Conference regular-season titles and two SEC tournament championships. While at Milwaukee, he won the Horizon League coach of the year award three times, and he’s been named SEC coach of the year four times. The 26 wins UWM had in 2004-05 are still the most in school history.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bruce Pearl, ex-UWM basketball coach, reportedly retiring at Auburn
