re: Is Nate Oats the favorite to be the top coach in the SEC going forward?

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Pearl has Auburn producing at historical levels.

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Historical levels at Auburn isn’t saying much. I’d say winning one (1) NCAA tournament game since 2019 is not a good trend for Bruce. Not to mention losing to Yale. And he just lost KD to the portal. .

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IF he gets past UNC, then it can be said he's on an upward trend.

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I disagree. Making three Sweet Sixteens in four years - making the regional finals back to back for the first time in 33 years, being the overall No. 1 seed for the first time in school history last year - is enough confirmation for me that Oats has this thing clicking.

Making the Sweet Sixteen this year after losing 70% of your production along with all three assistants to HC jobs is a masterful coaching job. Anything beyond last Sunday is gravy, IMO. We’ll be better next year.