Steven Pearl let out a sigh of relief as he walked into the press room for his postgame news conference.

“I mean, I hope they get a little less stressful as my career goes on,” he said after sitting down.

It took overtime for Auburn to score a 95-90 win over Bethune-Cookman, a program that hadn’t had a winning season since 2020. The game provided plenty of things for the Tigers to try and improve in the coming weeks, but Pearl still got the happy ending to his head coaching debut.

He described the victory as bittersweet, given how his team played, but still took a moment to reflect on his first win since taking over the program from his father.

“It’s an incredible opportunity I was blessed with,” Pearl said. “I can’t thank John [Cohen] enough for trusting me and putting me in this po

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