It’s another meaningful college basketball game involving Tennessee’s Coach Barnes and Auburn’s Coach Pearl, but this one is different.
For the past decade, Rick Barnes has guided his Volunteers against the Tigers of Bruce Pearl, but the 65-year-old Pearl retired on Sept. 22 and handed the keys to the program to his 38-year-old son, Steven. The younger Pearl has coached Auburn to a 14-7 overall record and a 5-3 Southeastern Conference mark entering Saturday night’s showdown inside the Food City Center, while the Vols are 14-6 overall and 4-3 within the league in their 11th season under Barnes.
“Steven has done a really good job,” Barnes said Friday in a news conference. “I think they’ve continued to get better all year, which is what you’re looking for, and they’re playing with confidence. He does a terrific job of getting his guys where he wants them to be. He’s doing a lot of really good things.
“He’s stuck to things they’ve done before, but he’s put his own touch on it, too, which I know his dad is proud of.”
Auburn and Tennessee have combined for five SEC regular-season championships and three league tournament crowns since 2018, but neither is ranked this week. Both teams do enter on somewhat of a surge, with the Vols rebounding from their disappointing home loss to Kentucky on Jan. 17 with road victories at Alabama last weekend and at Georgia on Wednesday.