A student holds up a cutout of Bruce Pearl's head Tuesday night at the press conference. Raye May / DESIGN EDITOR
I still have the magazine.
It is sitting somewhere in a drawer at my grandparents’ house outside of town.
The date on it reads Nov. 15, 1999 — Sports Illustrated’s college basketball season preview.
“Auburn is No. 1.”
Chris Porter is flashing a massive smile at the camera while throwing down a dunk in that classic navy uniform.
Head coach Cliff Ellis’ Tigers had their Sweet 16 run seven months before Porter’s famous cover photo. The country’s biggest sports magazine was picking Auburn to go all the way in the 1999-2000 season.
Doc Robinson thrilled at point guard, Scotty Pohlman drilled 3-pointers from the corner, Mamadou N’Diaye famously “packed lunches” for bucket-bound forwards coming against him and Porter — well, Chris Porter did everything on his way to becoming Auburn’s last All-American selection.
As the son of two passionate Auburn alumni, I have watched Auburn basketball since birth.
Even though I was in elementary school, I remember those teams around the turn of the millennium.
I remember Auburn basketball being fun.
Yes, the same program that lost four consecutive SEC Tournament games a little more than a decade later. Yes, the same program that has not been to the Big Dance in 11 years.
Fourteen years and some change after Auburn men’s basketball graced the cover of Sports Illustrated, the program made its return to national attention.
Even though this season’s NCAA Tournament was due to tipoff a few hours later, Auburn dominated the college basketball splash page of ESPN.com.
Bruce Pearl, arguably the most successful coach on the market in the young offseason, was coming to the Plains.
Pearl would be the fourth new head coach at Auburn since November 2012.
Athletic director Jay Jacobs has hired a football coach who led the team to a completely unforeseen BCS National Championship run, a baseball coach who had been to the College World Series and a softball coach who won a national championship on the other side of the country.
And after firing Tony Barbee after four fruitless seasons of Auburn men’s basketball, Jacobs could have easily gone the traditional route in hiring Barbee’s replacement.
With attendance and excitement at an alarming low rate in Auburn and throughout most of the conference, Jacobs could have picked another up-and-coming mid-major coach and hoped he would translate his success into the SEC.
He did not have to get a championship-caliber coach like baseball’s Sunny Golloway or softball’s Clint Myers. It worked out with Malzahn, and Auburn fans are generally not as passionate about men’s basketball nowadays.
Not anymore.
In Pearl, Jacobs hired the head coach most basketball fans wanted — someone who has won quickly and made a SEC program a consistent NCAA Tournament team.
Pearl showed Tuesday night inside Auburn Arena what he could bring to the program. Sure, anyone could look at Wikipedia to learn Pearl’s career record and honors, but you had to be in the Arena for his opening press conference.
He was the ultimate showman, giving the few thousand fans what they wanted: energy and passion from a program that lacked both for most of Barbee’s tenure.
He cracked jokes. He promised to play fast-paced basketball. He passionately spoke about his past issues with the NCAA and his appreciation of Auburn giving him a second chance.
Pearl knows he has a tough job ahead of him. He loses the team’s leading scorer and inherits an undersized roster. Recruiting will be tough with his expiring show cause penalty.
But Pearl has done a lot with a little everywhere he has been. He knows how to build a program and how to get people fired up about it.
Tuesday night at Auburn Arena was the closest thing this campus has gotten to the days of Porter and Company in a long time.
With time, patience and a little luck, Bruce Pearl might be able to get Auburn back to those heights in a wide-open SEC.
Read more: The Auburn Plainsman - OPINION Pearl could bring the magic back to men s basketball