re: Official: The Search Is On (Men's Basketball Coach Search Thread)

He would have to convince Pearl that Auburn can be serious about basketball beyond throwing a new arena at the problem, but Pearl seems like a sucker for a challenge like Auburn.

It's true that the former Tennessee coach is still under a show-cause penalty until August because he lied about the NCAA rule he broke while recruiting for the Vols, but that's not a deal-breaker. Besides, there's more to that story that makes hiring Pearl less objectionable than many people might think.

In fact, if there's a school that can justify hiring a coach with any sort of NCAA baggage, it's Auburn, which has not one but two former NCAA employees on staff in Senior Associate AD Rich McGlynn and Associate AD Dave Didion.

According to a source with knowledge of the situation, Didion was the lead NCAA investigator on the Tennessee case. Which means he knows exactly what Pearl did and didn't do and what he said and didn't say to draw the NCAA's attention in the first place and how he acted during the investigation.

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apparently the lead NCAA investigator

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Didion would have an excellent first-hand understanding of Pearl's attitude toward compliance. If he were to sign off on Pearl - which already may have occurred - it would go a long way toward convincing Jacobs to go after him.

Given the speed with which Jacobs dispatched Barbee, that process already may be in motion.
LINK

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Signed,

Sunny Golloway
Clint Myers
Tony Barbee
John Pawlowski
Terri Williams-Flournoy

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Step into the path of the Fevered Conspiracy Theorists at your own peril.

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No degree.

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Neither did Hawke when he was hired as Head Swimming Coach.

He earned it his first semester (or two?) while he was Head Coach.

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skarbinsky just tweeted something that should put the pearl to AU stuff to bed... apparently the lead NCAA investigator on the pearl case is now working in auburn's compliance dept.

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The article to which the tweet referred went further than that.

It made the point that since we do have Didion (the investigator you refer to) on our Compliance Staff, if we *DO* go after Pearl, that should mean a lot when it comes to potential NCAA issues in offering him the job (i.e. there should be none).

And as the investigator, Pearl should have no issue with him. All he did was establish the facts of the case (which I'm pretty sure were not contested). Didion had nothing to do with the punishment.

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He is the kind of guy (without a doubt established) that we need.

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I'm glad people are thinking like this now.

A few weeks ago everyone just wanted a 'basketball HUNH' coach because 'Auburn isn't Kansas.'

Throw enough money at a guy like Pearl and see if our program both in perception and reality doesn't instantly improve.

Is Pearl the Bobby Petrino of this coaching search? Should we refer to him as BMFP?

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nobody outside of auburn basketball fans know who chuck person is, especially recruits. don't get me wrong, CP is probably the best auburn basketball player in our history, but that doesn't mean he can coach.

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Pacer Fans know the Rifleman! Dude was money...

We aren't leaving Under Armour all together. It would be stupid they give us a sweetheart deal as one of now two name brand programs. A deal that, considering merchandise sale avg over past 5 years and consistency of the program, we don't deserve.

Also they are trendy and making huge strides in football which is what truly matters to the AD. We aren't giving up our deal for Basketball

So why fire Barbee? Under Armour will continue to drag the basketball program behind. ...unless Lebron James or Kevin Durant signs an endorsement deal with Under Armour, we're fricked.