How Bruce Pearl turned Auburn into a basketball school

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AUBURN, Ala. -- One month before the No. 1 Auburn Tigers sealed their third regular-season SEC championship under Bruce Pearl, Charles Barkley was trying to make his way through a sold-out crowd at Neville Arena.

"Charles! Charles! Charles!" fans shouted at the former Auburn superstar, but it was the buzz for the team that caught his attention.

"[Before Bruce Pearl,] if we won one March Madness game, we'd be like, 'We had a great season,'" said Barkley, who led Auburn to its first NCAA tournament appearance in 1984. "He got us to the Final Four [in 2019], which was a shocker to everybody, but now he's gotten us to the point that unless we win a couple of March Madness…