Live from the Final Four ... Never a dull moment with Auburn Tigers coach Bruce Pearl

College basketball does not have a more accurate reflection of both its joys and woes than Bruce Pearl.

Steering Auburn to its first Final Four in glorious fashion — surviving a first-round scare against upset-minded New Mexico State, then knocking off kingpins Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky — Pearl has reached the height of his profession. And he’s been charming and charismatic every step of the way.

Except for that moment in the Midwest Region final against Kentucky in Kansas City, when he peeled off his sportscoat in anger, revealing a sweat-stained shirt. The jacket was back on moments later. Then he slammed the scorer’s table to protest a call after sending a big smile to a player who had just made a mistake.

His downcast tone after defeating the Tar Heels in the Tigers’ Sweet 16 was genuine. Auburn had collected one of the biggest triumphs in program history but lost valued starter Chuma Okeke to a torn ACL in the second half.

Pearl’s personality is such that when something of note happens on the floor, attention quickly turns to the coach to gauge his response.

“When the clock starts and the game is on, that’s exactly who I am,” Pearl said. “The buzzer sounds, it shuts down … I guess I kind of let it all hang out.”

It’s always been that way, from when he was toiling as an assistant coach to his various head-coaching jobs — at Southern Indiana, Milwaukee and Tennessee — and now at Auburn, which meets Virginia on Saturday at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Those three straight victories over college basketball’s bluebloods have raised the profile of the coach whose best-known antic before this month was painting his upper body orange and leading the Tennessee student section in cheers for a Vols women’s basketball game while he was the men’s coach in Knoxville.

With the journey, however, comes the baggage.

Pearl’s list of predicaments is long and stretches across multiple schools — from his role in a recruiting scandal as an Iowa assistant, to recruiting violations and lying to the NCAA as Tennessee’s coach, and then a more recent disturbance in which Tigers assistant coaches were suspended for their roles in the FBI investigation into college basketball corruption.

Last week, USA Today columnist Nancy Armour wrote “… he’s managed to turn sleaze into an attribute.”

Through it all, Pearl has forged ahead. Asked about the off-court state of the game last week, Pearl wasn’t sure how to respond.

“It’s not a cesspool,” Pearl said. “There are some things that are wrong with it, things that take place that are inappropriate. That’s the business of college basketball. The reason why the NCAA is involved in this is because it’s their job to monitor. It’s their job to enforce. It’s their job to encourage people to work hard, to do it the right way and not allow some other things to seep into the business ... because of the money and the pressures.”

On Thursday, at his first Final Four news conference of the week, Pearl was asked about the issues specific to his program. Could he have envisioned this type of run after assistant coach Chuck Person was arrested in 2017? Person pled guilty in March and sentencing is pending.

“I knew what I knew, and knew all that I didn’t know,” Pearl said. “So therefore, I was comfortable that if we stayed the course, that we were going to be fine.

“There were several people, and I may even have had a conversation with some of you, and said, ‘Trust me on this one. I’m going to be OK.’ That doesn’t make what’s happened right, and certainly there have been severe penalties (involving) both people in coaching as well as the student-athletes. Our job is to protect our student-athletes from things like that, and when we don’t do our job, there are consequences.”

Whatever consequences there are for Pearl, Auburn and college basketball are to be determined. Through the adversity, his players have continued to support Pearl.

“I appreciate the passion he has for the program and sticking with us through the ups and downs,” Tigers junior forward Anfernee McLemore said. “Every day he gives it his all, no matter what.”

For now, there is the business at hand. Auburn is attempting to join a small list of schools that have won national championships in both men’s basketball and football. Florida is the only other SEC school to accomplish the feat.

Auburn got to this point with remarkable three-point shooting. The Tigers are second in NCAA history with 445 made threes. They’ve bludgeoned NCAA tourney opponents — Kansas and North Carolina, especially — with lethal long-distance accuracy.

And when they’ve had to buckle down on defense, that’s happened, too. The Tigers even got past Kentucky without Okeke, the team’s most effective frontcourt player.

“We’re the hottest team in the tournament,” Pearl said.

He’s right. The Tigers’ 13-game winning streak is the longest of this year’s Final Four teams.

Pearl likes his team’s chances here in Minneapolis. But he’s been confident all along. A year ago, an injured Auburn squad was blown out by Clemson in the second round. This team is not only more complete but more talented and confident.

Pearl made sure that was the case when this year’s bracket was announced.

“We talked about trying to make history at Auburn,” Pearl said. “Not just being in the Final Four, but getting there through all the bluebloods, all the Hall of Fame coaches, all the McDonald’s All-Americans. We’re still on that journey.”