{"id":607074,"date":"2026-02-16T22:52:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/607074\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T22:52:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:52:21","slug":"paul-finebaum-things-have-gone-very-badly-for-steven-pearl-at-auburn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/607074\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Finebaum: Things have gone ‘very badly’ for Steven Pearl at Auburn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Auburn<\/a> is on a four-game losing streak after falling 88-75 to Arkansas<\/a> on Saturday. During an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, ESPN\u2019s Paul Finebaum criticized first-year Auburn head coach Steven Pearl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s gone very badly,\u201d Finebaum said<\/a> of Pearl\u2019s tenure. \u201cSome are arguing that Steven Pearl ends up being his father. \u2026 I don\u2019t necessarily buy that. I don\u2019t like what I\u2019ve seen in this team. \u2026 \u201cWhat\u2019s happening right now, It doesn\u2019t add up, and they are in serious danger. If you go from making the Final Four to not making the NCAA tournament, I don\u2019t care what your last name is, Auburn fans are not going to be very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearl was named Auburn\u2019s head coach in September 2025 after his father, Bruce Pearl<\/a>, retired from the position. Auburn signed Steven Pearl to a five-year contract.<\/p>\n

Pearl was an assistant under his father at Auburn from 2017-25. He\u2019s never coached at another school. While Pearl has had promising flashes, Auburn has ultimately underperformed this season.<\/p>\n

The Tigers entered the year ranked No. 20 in the country. In the latest AP Top 25, Auburn didn\u2019t receive a single vote. In fairness, Auburn was without leading scorer Keyshawn Hall<\/a> in its loss to Arkansas this past weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you suspend a player, you don\u2019t do it because you\u2019re trying to win some sort of award,\u201d Finebaum said. \u201cYou do it because the player has clearly violated team policies to a point where you cannot tolerate it any longer. So, I\u2019m not about to give him a parade because he kicked off his best player. It just tells me that the players weren\u2019t listening to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearl suspended Hall indefinitely for disciplinary reasons. Hall\u2019s absence was painfully evident for Auburn against the Razorbacks. Hall is averaging 20.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game this season.<\/p>\n

Auburn shot just 41% from the field and 32% from 3-point range in its loss on Saturday. Steven Pearl is earning a $3 million salary. If he is fired without cause before April 30, 2030, Auburn will owe him half the value of his remaining contract.<\/p>\n

Auburn will aim to bounce back on Wednesday when it squares off against Mississippi State<\/a> at 8 p.m. CT. The game will air live on ESPN2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Auburn is on a four-game losing streak after falling 88-75 to Arkansas on Saturday. During an appearance on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,6,12,62508],"class_list":{"0":"post-607074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-nba-draft","11":"tag-steven-pearl-06-west"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116082766498378357","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}