Auburn University Regional Airport that afternoon. Pearl was formally introduced as Auburn's 20th head basketball coach at a press conference in Auburn Arena that evening. On the opportunity, Pearl said, "I’m humbled and blessed to be back in the game that I love. I don’t know how long it will take, but it’s time to rebuild the Auburn basketball program, and bring it to a level of excellence so many of the other teams on campus enjoy. I’m thrilled to join the Auburn family and appreciative of this opportunity and the challenge that awaits." Pearl signed a 6-year contract worth $2.2 million per year with a $100,000 annual escalator. Pearl won his first game as Auburn's head coach on November 14, 2014, against his former school, Milwaukee, 83–73. Despite failing to finish with a winning record for the first time in his career as a head coach, Pearl's first two seasons at Auburn were not without some significant wins. He led Auburn to the SEC tournament semifinals in 2015 as a 13 seed, and ended Auburn's 18-game losing streak to Kentucky in 2016. He earned his 500th career win as a head coach on January 18, 2017, after defeating LSU, 78–74. Before Pearl's fourth season at Auburn, his associate head coach Chuck Person was arrested on charges of corruption and bribery. Auburn elected to hold sophomores Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy out of games due to eligibility concerns raised over the FBI investigation. Pearl was cited as being uncooperative with Auburn's internal investigation of the program at first, though school president Steven Leath and Pearl have since come to an understanding of expectations for the investigation. Despite the scrutiny both internally and externally and losing two players due to the investigation, Pearl led the 2017–18 team to its best record since 1999 while winning the SEC regular season championship. A player, Bryce Brown, credits the recent team success to Pearl's taking them to Italy to build team 'chemistry', opponent preparation by Pearl, and the head coach's strong belief in each player. In 2019, Pearl's team tied for 4th in the conference and won the SEC Conference tournament by beating Tennessee handily in the championship game 84–64, giving Auburn their 2nd tournament championship. In the 2019 NCAA tournament, Pearl's Auburn team narrowly defeated #12 seed New Mexico State 78–77 in the first round. Auburn subsequently topped #4 seed Kansas 89–75 to