Rece Davis responds to Bruce Pearl 'stumping' against Miami-OH for NCAA Tournament bid

Recently, former Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl made waves when he shut down Miami (OH)’s chances to make the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team. His comments have led to a giant debate across college basketball as Selection Sunday approaches.

Pearl believes that Miami (OH) has to win the MAC Tournament to get into the field, saying they are not one of the 68 best teams in the country. The Redhawks are currently 29-0, including 16-0 in MAC play.

After Pearl’s comments, ESPN’s Rece Davis weighed in. He immediately mentioned the fact that Pearl’s son, Steven, is currently coaching at Auburn, which is also on the NCAA Tournament bubble and possibly battling for one of the final spots with Miami (OH).

“I’m not anxious or eager to ascribe a motivation to people when they do something, because we get that all the time,” Davis said on the College GameDay podcast. “‘Well, you just want this, you just want that.’ Lack of self-awareness is a good way to put it, because the other team in the crosshairs is, or was until Saturday night, his son’s team who’s the head coach at Auburn.”

Davis: Pearl is ‘generally right’ with take on Miami (OH)

In On3’s latest Bracketology, Miami (OH) was in as the MAC champion as an 11-seed. Auburn was in the field as one of the last four teams in.

“He’s generally right,” Davis said of Pearl. “They don’t have an at-large case in terms of wins and those things that you would look at. But the human element, the dramatic element, the winning all the games. I mean how many times have we gotten from bubble coaches, I remember my good friend Seth Greenberg; we still laugh about all the angry texts that he would send Bilas and me when he was sitting on the bubble at Virginia Tech.

“One of the things, not just Seth but other coaches, how many times have you heard this phrase – ‘Do you know how hard it is to win?’ That’s fine. I agree with it. Very hard to win, any sport, any situation. But it’s hard to win against a difficult schedule, also. So which do you value more?”

Auburn, of course, hasn’t done itself any favors. After starting 14-7 and 5-3 in SEC play, they’ve lost seven of their last eight. That includes their most recent defeat, 85-79 at home to Ole Miss on Saturday.

In the end, Pearl’s in a tricky spot to weigh in on the bubble. Miami (OH)’s AD even called him out for the “disrespect,” saying he shouldn’t be near a TV studio covering college basketball.

“Because what happens when you take a stand or it’s your team involved? You end up excluding the other side of the argument,” Davis added. “Both things are hard. It’s really hard to still have a zero in the loss column as Miami (OH) does as we sit here on March 2^nd. It is also really hard to play the No. 1 schedule in the country and go out there every night and finish many games above .500.”

Miami (OH) has two games left in the regular season – Tuesday against Toledo and Friday at Ohio. Auburn hosts LSU on Tuesday and finishes at No. 16 Alabama on Saturday. Selection Sunday is on Sunday, March 15.