$2.2M Gamble Leaves Auburn Reeling as National Reporter Exposes Major Locker Room Crisis Suffered by Bruce Pearl

In one fell swoop, Auburn’s roster fell apart. As Florida put the Tigers to rest, we saw glimpses of disastrous realization. Johni Broome was leaving, and a heap of players were graduating. However, the situation wasn’t as bad as it is now. They still had Tahaad Pettiford, who recently announced that he’ll be entering the NBA draft while maintaining his eligibility, and Chad Baker-Mazara, an essential piece in their Final Four run. However, things got out of hand rather quickly for Bruce Pearl and his locker room.

Pettiford’s future at Auburn is still uncertain, but Baker-Mazara? He’s out, and just like that, Auburn was no longer immune to surprise departures as the nearly month-long window closed at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. The six-foot-seven combo guard, who struggled with disciplinary issues, was instrumental to the Tigers’ success this year. Remember the 17-point performance that led his team to a round-of-32 win against the Creighton Bluejays in the Tigers’ Final Four run this season? His length, perimeter defense, and shooting saw him log a career-high 12.3 points per game. But what exactly led to his departure?

Earlier this season, while HC Pearl was full of praise for Chad, he also made sure to highlight Baker-Mazara’s antics. “He puts a lot of pressure on himself. That’s one of the things that sometimes gets him, where he gets out of sorts a little bit… Yeah, he can go through phases where he can get really hot,” Pearl said. Despite those antics, the Auburn HC valued CBM for the kind of dominant force he turns into on the court. Still, even that wasn’t enough to convince Baker-Mazara to stay with the Tigers. According to analysts, it was a dark and gritty tale of NIL and jealousy! On The Field of 68: After Dark show, co-hosts Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster discussed how transfer negotiations influenced Baker-Mazara to leave Auburn:

“He was hurt that Keyshawn Hall signed a deal with Auburn, after the season, for double the money,” Goodman said. Apparently, CBM had signed a deal earlier this year to return to Auburn for his last year in college for about $1.1 million. However, Hall, while negotiating a transfer, ended up extracting double that amount from the program!

It must have felt like a slap in the face for Chad Baker-Mazara to see the Tigers offering an outsider so much money, while not giving the same offer to one of their own. CBM’s impact on the Tigers cannot be understated. Even if we look at the last game he played for Auburn, he dropped 18 points on an astonishing 57% from deep! There’s no doubt that he was worth as much as Hall, but Auburn didn’t necessarily see it that way.

According to Goodman, even further bargaining did not pan out. “They renegotiated, and the number that Auburn came up to was not satisfactory for Chad and his camp.” He said, before pointing out a rather strong sign of conviction from Baker-Mazara’s end. “He signed a deal, Rob, in which if he gets out of that deal legally, he would have to pay back a significant percentage of that 1.1 million. I’m told it’s around 60% of the deal.”

It will be interesting to see how Bruce Pearl manages this messy locker room situation that he has going on. We already know that he’s looking at unorthodox places to recruit potential stars, and we can’t wait to see whether they will pan out or not. We’ve seen some JUCO and DIII players do extremely well at this level, but who exactly does Pearl have in mind? Let’s find out!

Bruce Pearl and Auburn scramble to catch up in rapid-fire transfer portal race

There’s no doubt that Auburn had a great run this year, but almost nothing remains of the empire that Bruce Pearl built. The Tigers have had to deal with challenges aplenty both in March Madness and after it, and it is taking its toll on the program. Even the coaching staff is worried about what is going to happen.

“We’re way behind in the portal right now.” Steven Pearl, the associate head coach, said, but his pops still has some tricks up his sleeve! In the age of transfer portal shenanigans and one-and-done prospects, Bruce Pearl has cast his sights on the overlooked crop–JUCO, DIII, and DII. There’s no doubt they can hoop, but Bruce Pearl will really put them to the test this year.

Case in point, the sixty-five-year-old head coach recently signed Elyjah Freeman, a highly eligible transfer from the Division II level! The six-foot-eight wing last played for Lincoln Memorial and earned numerous Player of the Week honors. He is a four-star recruit according to On3, and Bruce Pearl will be hoping for him to ball out!

After signing Abdul Bashir and Emeka Opurum from the JUCO level as well, Bruce Pearl is showing an incredible amount of courage. The Auburn head coach is taking the road not taken in terms of scouting, and we can’t wait to see where his roster ends up!