How Auburn basketball's Wes Flanigan stepped up to coach Tigers with Bruce Pearl suspended

After leading his alma mater as its head coach for the first time, Wes Flanigan took a moment Saturday to reflect and consider the win-win situation in which he found himself.

"I've prepared for that moment. I hope at some point I get another opportunity," he said. "But if I don't, I can always say that I'm the winningest coach, percentage wise, in Auburn history."

He's undefeated. A perfect 1-0. Flanigan was Auburn basketball's acting head coach Saturday in a 99-68 win over Nebraska in Atlanta. He stepped into the role after coach Bruce Pearl was suspended two games by the NCAA on Friday, concluding a four-year investigation into the program.

The second game of the suspension Tuesday will be coached by Steven Pearl, Bruce's son and another Auburn assistant. The team arranged it that way because Flanigan had already been assigned to the scout Nebraska, and Steven Pearl was scouting North Alabama.

So maybe this is it for Flanigan, who spent three years as coach at Arkansas-Little Rock before returning to Auburn.

"If I never coach another game," he said, "I can at least take that to the grave."

No. 21 Auburn (8-1) avoided a 2021-22 postseason ban in the NCAA's sanctions, which is key because the Tigers are proving to be one of college basketball's most talented teams. They moved up to No. 11 in KenPom after beating Nebraska by 31.

"For four years, we’ve been a little bit under a cloud of darkness, but like I told our guys in the locker room, it’s a two-game stretch here where at some point, that cloud is gone," Flanigan said. "So we’ll move forward. We’ll press forward for one more game without (Pearl), but we can’t wait to get him back. Today I think our guys and our staff made that guy very, very happy."

Flanigan tried to coach Saturday with the same strategy and sense of flow that Pearl would. Pearl is known for giving his players freedom to shoot and imploring them to be accountable for themselves if the shots aren't falling. Auburn had a brief lull in which Nebraska went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 55-41 in the second half. Flanigan didn't use a timeout.

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"Typically, Coach Pearl will let our guys play through mistakes or play through lulls," he said. "We don’t spend a lot of timeouts. It’s a responsibility on our players to find a way to get it turned (around). We’ve done a good job of that this year, and really in the past, of being able to get things turned without a timeout. So we trust our guys from that standpoint. We buckled down."

"He let us play just like B.P. would," guard Wendell Green Jr. said. "It really didn't feel no different, so it was great."

Auburn answered with a 21-6 stretch that put the game out of reach.

Green referred to the NCAA's penalties as "good news" and said it made the Tigers more excited to play. He helped Auburn deliver a season-high 14 3-pointers.

Much like the father-son connection between Bruce and Steven Pearl on the coaching staff, Flanigan has started an Auburn family of his own. His son, Allen, is a junior guard recovering from an Achilles injury. The team hopes to have one of the SEC's top returning scorers back by the start of SEC play.

In the meantime, Auburn alum Wes Flanigan got his moment Saturday.

"I'll just say this, man: I'm so proud to be an Auburn Tiger. I'm so proud that Coach Pearl gave me an opportunity to lead our team today," he said. "I had a ball today, man."

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn basketball: Wes Flanigan coaches win with Bruce Pearl suspended