Miami (Ohio) athletic director David Sayler was tired of seeing his undefeated men’s basketball team being dragged down by Bruce Pearl.
Sayler blasted the TNT Sports analyst in on X Monday, after Pearl took his criticism of the RedHawks further during an interview on Fox’s “Get Up Barstool.”
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy threw out the idea that Miami could finish in the top half of a “big boy” conference.
Pearl adamantly said, “No way.”
“They’re not built for the grind of a Big Ten or even a Big East. In the Big East conference this year, they’d finish in the lower half,” Pearl said. “They may not finish last, but I’m not so sure.”
The former Auburn coach, who mistakenly called fifth-place DePaul a last-place team in the Big East, stated he believed the No. 19 RedHawks could have “one shining moment” and beat a No. 9 or No. 7 team in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but doubled down on the grind of major conference play.
DePaul actually lost to Buffalo, currently sitting fifth in the MAC, earlier this season.
Sayler clearly heard enough after Pearl, who also said last week on TNT that the RedHawks should not get an at-large bid to March Madness if they do not win the MAC Tournament.
The AD also called out potential biases Pearl could have in this argument with his son, Steven Pearl, in his first season coaching bubble-team Auburn, for whom his dad is still employed as an ambassador.
“@coachbrucepearl u are flat out wrong about @MiamiOH_BBall when u say we would finish last in the Big East,” Sayler wrote. “The disrespect is awful and u should not be near a TV studio covering this sport when u show your true colors! Even slipped in a “we” when talking about Auburn, nice work!”
Miami is the only undefeated team left in Division I men’s basketball at 29-0 with three conference games left to complete a perfect regular season.
It is just No. 52 in the NET Ranking and its best win is a Quad 2 victory over Akron.
Auburn, which Pearl coached for 11 seasons and reached two Final Fours with, is 15-14 and just 6-10 in SEC play.
The Tigers are, however, 38th in the NET Ranking and own a combined seven Quad 1 and 2 victories — five of them in Quad 1 — and no quad four losses.
They have also lost 10 straight games despite the solid resume.
“If we’re selecting the 68 best teams, then Miami is going to have to win their tournament to qualify as a champion,” Bruce Pearl said on TNT on Saturday. “Because, as an at-large, they are not one of the best teams in the country.”
