Bruce Pearl reacts to Auburn missing NCAA tournament, Miami (Ohio) getting in

Bruce Pearl raised a lot of eyebrows when the former Auburn coach-turned-analyst dismissed then-undefeated Miami of Ohio as a potential NCAA Tournament team, especially when compared to his former squad. Of course, after receiving pushback, Pearl eventually changed his tune with regard to the RedHawks’ tourney chances as an at-large bid.

Well, on Selection Sunday, Miami of Ohio (31-1), which lost its first game in the MAC Tournament quarterfinals last week, made the 68-team field as one of the Last Four In, along with NC State, Texas and SMU. Meanwhile, Pearl’s Tigers found themselves on the outside looking in among the First Four Out, much to the former coach’s chagrin. The RedHawks play fellow No. 11 seed SMU, which secured the field’s final at-large bid, in a First Four play-in game in Dayton.

“Congratulations to both SMU and Miami of Ohio, but that’s bad news for the rest of the bubble,” Pearl said after the RedHawks’ First Four matchup was announced Sunday afternoon on CBS’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Selection Show.

“Auburn beat three champions this year, they beat Florida, they beat St. Johns and they beat Arkansas,” Pearl added later in the show. “They played the toughest schedule in the country. I don’t know if they were awarded for it. It’s hard to get another couple of SEC teams in when the SEC already has 10.”

Bruce Pearl backtracks on Miami of Ohio, says they’re in despite not being MAC’s best team

“With Miami-Ohio, here’s the deal,” Pearl said Feb. 28 on TNT. “Are we going to select the 68 most deserving teams, or are we going to select the 68 best teams? If we’re selecting the 68 best teams, Miami (Ohio) is gonna have to win their Tournament to qualify as a champion. As an at-large, they are not one of the best teams in the country. That’s going to be a difficult choice for the committee to make.”

A week later, after receiving plenty of pushback both nationally and from Miami-Ohio itself, Pearl appears to have changed his tune. During halftime of Sunday night’s Michigan–Michigan State game on CBS, the former Auburn coach flip-flopped on the RedHawks’ NCAA chances while also claiming another MAC team could ultimately win its way into the 68-team field by winning this week’s conference tournament.

“(Miami of Ohio) might not be the best team in the MAC, it might be Akron – it might be the Zips!” Pearl said, via Awful Announcing. “Five years in a row they’ve won 22-plus games. … They play fast, they’re God-oriented – I’m rooting for Akron to make the upset, that way two teams make the NCAA Tournament out of the MAC. … I’m putting Miami of Ohio in. They’re in!”