GEORGIA NOT LOOKING
Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity issued a statement Tuesday after Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports reported that the Bulldogs were “doing due diligence” as far as studying candidates to potentially replace basketball coach Mark Fox.“In response to the report by Yahoo Sports, we are NOT in the process of exploring our options to replace Mark Fox,” McGarity said. “We look forward to Mark leading our program next year, and all of our efforts are centered on postseason play. It’s unfortunate we need to respond at this time, but it was necessary to quiet these unfounded rumors.”Fox is in his eighth year in Athens, having guided the Bulldogs to a 144-116 record, including an 18-13 mark this season. He has been to just two NCAA tournaments and did not win a game on either occasion.— David Paschall
It's Auburn Night again at the Southeastern Conference basketball tournament, proving that Bruce Pearl's rebuilding job is far from over at his second league locale.
The SEC tournament tips off tonight with the four lowest seeds, and Auburn is the only league program that has been relegated to Wednesday action all five years since Missouri and Texas A&M made this a 14-team event in 2013. Pearl's Tigers are 18-13 this season, having clinched the program's first winning record since 2009, but their 7-11 conference mark resulted in just an 11th-place finish.
"People would have expected, and it's certainly the case with my own expectations, that we would have made more progress faster," Pearl said this week. "At the same time, there are a lot of things we have accomplished this year that haven't been accomplished for a long time at Auburn. We've won 18 games, seven league games and six true road games.
"We've got four freshmen (Mustapha Heron, Jared Harper, Danjel Purifoy and Austin Wiley) who lead us in scoring, and we're the only team in the country to have that."
When Pearl took over the Tennessee program in 2005, his impact was immediate, as the Volunteers vaulted from a 14-17 record in Buzz Peterson's final season to a 22-8 mark that included a 12-4 SEC record and an Eastern Division title. He would guide Tennessee to a No. 1 ranking in 2008 and to six NCAA tournaments in six seasons, including the program's only Elite Eight trip in 2010.
Lying to NCAA investigators resulted in Pearl not only surrendering the reins in Knoxville but having to serve a three-year show-cause penalty before Auburn came calling to resurrect a spiraling program that last appeared in the NCAA tournament in 2003.
The Tigers have gone 4-14, 5-13 and 7-11 in SEC play during Pearl's three seasons, which can be viewed as a wretched 16-38 overall or as slow but sure progress. His first team made a surprising run to the league semifinals before losing to Kentucky, and last year's team upset Kentucky before collapsing after Pearl had to dismiss his top player, Kareem Canty.
This season's bunch swept rival Alabama and collected nonconference wins over Connecticut, Oklahoma, TCU and Texas Tech.
"We're selling out a lot of our games, and there is a lot of excitement," Pearl said. "We went 3-0 against the Big 12 and have had some significant moments in the SEC, but we haven't had enough due to our inabilities defensively and in rebounding.
"We've not made as much progress as I would have liked, but I am very encouraged with our program. We're competitive, and we weren't a few years ago."
Pearl signed a pair of four-star prospects in the 2017 class and has a five-star recruit committed for 2018.
Mississippi State and LSU open the SEC tournament tonight at 7, with Auburn and Missouri following around 9:30. Auburn swept Missouri during the regular season, including last Saturday's 89-78 home triumph.
Missouri is seeded last with its 7-23 record and 2-16 conference mark, and the school has announced that third-year coach Kim Anderson will step down at season's end.
"We played well Saturday, and we were at home," Pearl said. "They will be ready to go and will be playing for Coach Anderson, but I think our guys will be as excited about playing Missouri as they would anybody else in this tournament."
Winning tonight would give Auburn 19 wins, but a 20th victory Thursday night over sixth-seeded Ole Miss may also be required if Pearl's Tigers are to extend their season into next week.
"We've probably got to win a couple of games to get to the NIT," he said. "That would be a great goal, because we haven't played in the NIT since 2009. That would be terrific if we could get there.
"From top to bottom, anybody in this league is capable of beating anybody. We have a very young team that has learned a lot."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.