re: 10 Years of SEC Basketball

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I'm not saying it's a direct result of Bruce, but it certainly seems his arrival and Auburn's rise has accompanied the SEC becoming/returning as much bigger force in CBB. And to the extent we can trace some of that to Pearl, it's not surprising that watching a perennially awful team become pretty competitive with one of the best atmospheres in all of CBB would inspire other SEC schools to take it up a notch too.

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Pearl is definitely part of it but the league as a whole just started hiring better coaches in the mid to late 2010’s. Instead of settling for Tony Barbee, Rick Ray, Darrin Horn, Donnie Tyndall, etc and being OK with losing, schools just decided to start taking it more seriously eventually.