Pearl's first year at Auburn was 2014-15. He made the Final Four in his 5th season...which was 2018-19. Do you think the college basketball roster building landscape was a BIT different during that time period compared to now? In his first season there he brought in 3 transfers. One from JUCO and to one year grad transfers from mid-major programs. I suspect Bruce would tell you he would have LOVED to have access to over 1,000 college players who were immediately eligible during those first few years at Auburn.

Instead, he had to build like pretty much every coach did during those years. Through good HS recruiting. It's a slower process having to stack HS signing classes. I think Bruce would probably agree with that statement given the fact he's signed exactly FIVE total HS recruits for the 21-22 through 23-24 season. Did Bruce suddenly forget how to recruit HS players? Or did he realize the method of roster building had completely changed with the change in the transfer rules and that bring in multiple transfers per year was the way teams are built now?

But don't take my word. Listen to Bruce himself:

quote:
Roster construction has changed drastically during the 2020s when it comes to college hoops. Whereas the five-star freshmen used to be the prized recruits every year, now there are plentiful star transfers that hit the open market every year and have been utilized as a primary roster-building foundation for many programs. That’s certainly been the case at Auburn and was even before the new rules were implemented a couple years ago allowing for players to transfer without sitting out.

In some ways, Bruce Pearl yearns for the days of old, when the transfers he landed had to sit out a year and improve themselves before stepping on the court. But even with the new rules, Pearl is still leaning heavy on imports to fill out his lineup, even more so than freshmen.

quote:
“The one-time transfer is fine. I used to sit out somebody all the time and have them get a year older and a year better. DeSean Murray, Samir Doughty. I love bringing guys in and having them sit out and what a benefit that was. And I never looked at sitting out as a penalty. It was about getting bigger, getting stronger, getting academically more comfortable, investing in your body and your game and your academic. Sitting also helped get with graduation rates. We don’t hear anything about graduation rates anymore, nothing about APR, none of that stuff anymore that used to carry the day. We’re still doing a great job with all that stuff.

quote:
“The idea is: getting older, that’s the deal. We’ll take one or two high school players every year, one or two, maybe four or five in two years. So last year, we only took one in Aden Holloway. This year, we may take a couple more, but the days of taking three and four high school players every year are over right now. The NCAA tournament showed us that you got to get older and so we have got a roster this year at Auburn that is older and more experienced. I think that should help us.”

Comparing college basketball today to what it was prior to the implementation of the freedom of transfer rules is absurd. EVERY.SINGLE.COACH would agree with that statement.