BRUCE PEARL ARRIVES
Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl speaks during a press conference Tuesday, March 18, 2014, at the Auburn Arena in Auburn, Ala. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)
AUBURN, Alabama -- Bruce Pearl is attempting to create a few options as he tries to build his first schedule as Auburn's basketball coach.
Building a schedule can be tough, especially at Auburn, where former coach Tony Barbee secured only one game for the 2014-15 non-conference schedule -- a trip to Clemson that was set up by the SEC office -- before he was fired in March.
Pearl does not want to play lowly-rated teams, an approach he utilized during his time at Tennessee, where the non-conference schedule ranked in the top 10 nationally in four of six years.
"I don't know if this schedule will look like every other schedule they had to put together," Pearl told AL.com in an interview Monday. "You have to stay away from bottom feeders, you have to stay away from the conferences with RPIs in the 200s if you can. At this point I don't know whether we can or can't depending on how many we can attract."
Pearl would like to schedule home-and-home series with big-name programs and create a neutral-site game or two. Both Auburn and UAB have expressed interest in playing each other, but that likely will not happen until 2015 or beyond.
The newly-hired Auburn coach recently reached out to SEC coaches in an effort to schedule a doubleheader at a neutral site somewhere in the southeast.
"I've reached out to a couple of SEC coaches that aren't too terribly far from us and say, 'Hey, what do you think about a neutral site here or here? Birmingham, maybe Atlanta,'" Pearl said.
The neutral site games would feature two SEC teams going against a non-conference opponent. The SEC teams would not play each other, but the doubleheader could help the Tigers' RPI.
Pearl is also looking to schedule high mid-major teams such as Mercer, which is only 132 miles east from the Auburn campus. Mercer upset Duke in the NCAA tournament.
"Teams like Mercer that finish in the upper division of their league, those are the teams you want to play," Pearl said. "The other thing is you know Mercer is going to play a great schedule, so not only am I going to play against them but my RPI is affected by who they play."
Whether Pearl can find an opening on opponents' schedules remains to be seen. Auburn's schedule is wide open, while other programs across the country have only one or two spots remaining.
Pearl may have to get creative and sign two-for-one or a three-for-one deal with an opponent -- meaning two or three road trips by the Tigers with one return trip to Auburn by the opponent.
"I actually might take Auburn to some places on the road that you'd be going, 'Why in the world would you go there? You have everything to lose, nothing to gain,'" Pearl said. "But a road win over a mid major is enormous."
Auburn's non-conference schedule has not been up to snuff in recent years. The Tigers' non-conference slate failed to rank higher than 145th nationally in strength of schedule in Barbee's four seasons as coach, according to numbers compiled by CBSSports.com.