Pearl ensures SEC primed for more basketball history

Houston (34-4) and Duke (35-3) will tip off in the other Final Four game in San Antonio at 8:49 p.m. (TV: CBS) next Saturday.

The 2014 NCAA tourney was also the most recent time the SEC had two teams in the Final Four (Kentucky, Florida) — and only the second time the league has accomplished the feat since Pearl debuted as an SEC coach at Tennessee in 2005-06 (LSU, Florida).

“How the SEC does really matters to me, it genuinely matters to me,” said Pearl, who went on to praise SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and league’s previous commissioner, the late Mike Slive for their leadership.

“Basketball wasn’t holding up its end, it was Kentucky, and it was Billy Donovan-coached Florida, and every now and then Arkansas would have a run, or Tennessee would have a run,” said Pearl, whose making his first appearance in the Final Four since 2019.

“There are now 16 basketball teams in the SEC that are all committed to being competitive in men’s basketball …. the league has done a great job, and unfortunately there will only be one SEC team playing for the national championship (next) Monday.”

The SEC set records in this NCAA tournament with 14 teams making the 68-team field and seven in the Sweet 16. The SEC also became the first conference to have four schools playing in NCAA tourney regional finals.

Alas, Duke derailed No. 2-seed Alabama on Saturday, 85-65, in capturing the East Regional in Newark, N.C., denying Tide coach Nate Oats a return to the Final Four, and Houston beat Tennessee, 69-60, in the Midwest Regional in Indianapolis on Sunday to prevent Rick Barnes from reaching what would have been his second Final Four (2003) in 28 tourney appearances.

“The four teams that advanced, I think they’re the four best teams in the country,” Pearl said. “That doesn’t obviously always happen.”

Auburn, Florida, Houston and Duke are all No 1 seeds, only the second time in NCAA tourney history the Final Four is made up exclusively of top seeds. The 2008 tournament was the only other occasion, when eventual-national champion Kansas was joined by Memphis, North Carolina and UCLA.

An SEC team had never beaten legendary Michigan State coach Tom Izzo in NCAA tourney play, who in facing Auburn reached the Elite Eight for the 10th time in making his 27th consecutive NCAA tourney appearance.

“That league has been great all year, there’s no question about it, they had the top teams, and they competed every week against each other,” Izzo said. “I think it’s amazing they (Auburn) were picked number one in the country early and they survived most of the year.

“I’d say Bruce has done a great job because it’s hard to keep a team, as I remember back to those days, from start to finish.”

Pearl will have to get past a familiar foe for him to become the first SEC coach since John Calipari to win the national championship.

Calipari’s 2011-12 Kentucky team, led by No. 1 overall pick and 10-time NBA all-star Anthony Davis, capped a 38-2 season by beating Kansas, 67-59, in the championship game.

A storyline sure to repeat this week is how Pearl helped launch Florida coach Todd Golden’s career, hiring him to be his director of basketball operations at Auburn (2014-15) before promoting him to an assistant coaching position for the 2015-16 season.

The student beat the teacher earlier this season, the Gators snapping what was then a 14-game Tigers’ win streak, going on the road to top No. 1-ranked Auburn, 90-81.

Pearl’s Tigers went on to win the SEC regular-season championship, while Golden’s Gators — winners of 10 straight dating back to an 88-83 loss at Georgia on Feb. 25 — won the SEC tournament in Nashville.

“I’ve been telling everybody for about two months I think Florida’s the best team in the nation,” Pearl told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“They’ve been playing so well with such a deep and athletic front line, and they have the best point guard, maybe, in the country, so we’re going to have to figure it out.”