1-on-1 with Auburn head coach Steven Pearl (Part 1)

Steven Pearl sits down with The Observer to talk roster construction, bringing back the backcourt and the biggest lesson he learned from Year 1.

(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

AUBURN — The stretch of Donahue Drive that runs right in front of Neville Arena is currently under construction.

Auburn is taking advantage of a break between the end of the spring semester and the start of summer classes by knocking out some roadwork. The goal is to be in the best shape possible when the action on campus starts rolling again.

It’s fitting, considering how much renovating Steven Pearl has done across the street.

While most of the roster for next season is in place — and, yes, Auburn is still working on adding a final piece on the wing — Pearl is staying busy as his sets his sights on his second season as a head coach. He’ll be in Chicago soon to support Keyshawn Hall at the NBA Draft Combine, with recruiting trips to follow.

But Pearl made time to sit down with The Auburn Observer earlier this week to talk about the transition between a challenging Year 1 that ended with promise and what the Tigers hope will be a more successful Year 2.

And our 1-on-1 interview couldn’t be limited to just one piece. We’ll run the first half of it today, followed by the second half Thursday morning. Observer subscribers can get access to all of it. If you would like to join, click the button below to get started.

In this first half, Pearl talks about the process of building the 2026-27 roster, why Tahaad Pettiford chose to come back, the value of the NIT run, how the Tigers can get back to their old ways on defense, the one big characteristic he felt like Auburn needed out of the transfer portal and a whole lot more.

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JF: How different did this offseason feel for you by having a GM in Brian (Kloman) already in place? It feels like y’all made really quick work in the portal once it opened.

SP: I think part of it was, like, the fact that they changed the rules. It was so crucial.

I really feel like, last year, if the portal didn’t open until after the Final Four — I feel really confident that we would have gotten a couple of the guys that we were actively recruiting while we were still in San Antonio. The fact that we weren’t able to get out and go see those kids while other coaches were, because they had gotten knocked out of the tournament, was a huge disadvantage to us.

The timing really worked in our favor this year. We weren’t at a competitive disadvantage.

Then, having Brian come on as the general manager, in the two weeks that he spent with us before the portal opened, he was working behind the scenes, communicating with agents and just getting us prepared with the film that we needed to watch.

And our staff had been doing this for about a month before we hired BK. But BK being here really took a lot off of everyone’s plates, because we could focus on basketball. He was able to focus on getting us ready for the portal.

So we got back from Indianapolis, and we had five agent Zooms right away. Then we had six player Zooms on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday — just back to back to back. We were able to set up visits. We got five kids that were able to get to a visit, and all five committed.

We lost a couple in the process, just because people were able to outbid us. But for us, we’re gonna be good stewards for our budget. We’re not going to overpay for players that we feel like we can replace.

BK was instrumental is getting us prepared and getting us ready. And, like you said, once we got it rolling, we were able to get the dominoes to fall pretty quickly.

I think a lot of people on the outside were surprised when Tahaad decided to stay at Auburn. Nationally, you heard a lot of, like, “He’s gone. He’s gonna go closer to home. He’s gonna play for a team that won more games this season.”

From your perspective, can you speak to just how much Tahaad really likes being here and being a part of this? I think that’s something that gets overlooked, because everybody in this day and age automatically thinks it’s all about going and getting the biggest money possible.

What does it say about him and this program — the relationships y’all have built over the last couple of years — that he’s still playing basketball at Auburn?

I think it comes down to a few things. First — and they all say this — but he really loves Auburn. And that’s a huge sticking point for a lot of them. It’s a big reason why they’re here. You ask, “Outside of basketball, why would you want to come back?”

“Because we love it here. It feels like home. People are great to us. Our fans are amazing.”

So, Tahaad loves Auburn, and Auburn loves Tahaad. I think that’s a big, big part of it.

Second, if we hadn’t played in the NIT, I don’t keep him or KO.