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1) Find somebody who’s not a sitting head coach in college or the NBA.

2) Appoint an interim head coach for the season and hire somebody permanently the next spring, as Arizona did upon Lute Olson’s sudden retirement in October 2008 and as Virginia did last fall after Tony Bennett retired.

3) Promote one of the current staffers permanently and roll with it, as North Carolina did in October 1997 when Dean Smith retired and longtime assistant Bill Guthridge took over … and as Auburn has done this season.

Bruce Pearl retired on Sept. 22, after guiding Auburn to the Final Four last season and putting together an 11-year coaching run that was arguably the greatest in the program's history. His son, Steven, was on the staff, successful in his role as the team’s defensive coordinator.

Steven, 38, had no head coaching experience, though Bruce had said he turned down other head coaching opportunities to stick with him.

There was no search. No wait.

The same day that the Tigers began their official preseason practices was the same day Bruce Pearl retired and the same day Steven Pearl signed a five-year contract to become the team’s new head coach.

The press conference was held two days later, and Steven was off, with his head still spinning from the Tigers’ 2025 Final Four run, subsequent spring roster rebuilding, and now this.

“I haven't had time to kind of sit down and really just look at it and be like, 'Holy crap, this is insane what these last nine months have been,'� Steven Pearl told Auburn play-by-play announcer Andy Burcham several days after taking over the program. “I'm hoping I don't have that moment for another 15-20 years."

According to sources cited by CBS Sports, the Pearl family and Auburn’s administration had gone back and forth about whether Steven’s contract would formalize him as a “head-coach-in-waiting,� though CBS’s Matt Norlander noted that it didn’t ultimately matter with the timing of Bruce’s resignation.

Others noticed the bind Auburn was in, too.

“Is it worth two Final Fours if it means you’re forced to make a nepo hire that you’ll probably have to clean up in three years?� tweeted Yahoo Sports college sports columnist Dan Wolken. “Interesting test case at Auburn.�

On Thursday, Pearl told the Star that he understood exactly where that sort of sentiment was coming from, when asked if he's felt extra pressure to prove himself because of his situation.

"I would be questioning you if you didn't have that same question that you just asked me, `Like, does he deserve it?' You know what I mean?' " Pearl said. "I get that. I'm very realistic about what this looks like for me.

"It's all about the work that I put in every single day, and I just grind and just try to do everything I can to help this team get better each and every day. That's been our focus, and I think up to this point, we've done a pretty good job of that."

It helped that Pearl was able to keep his roster together. Already Auburn was returning just guard Tahaad Pettiford from its Final Four team last season, and players have a 30-day window to transfer after a coach leaves.

Pettiford, especially, might have commanded a top deal somewhere else.

But Pearl said he and his staff had individual conversations with players, their families and their agents. By Oct. 1, Pearl said both Pettiford and forward Keyshawn Hall, a key transfer from UCF, committed to staying.

Pettiford later said he never considered leaving Auburn and told TNT last week during the Players Era Festival that Steven was a "cooler guy" even though both he and Bruce are goal-oriented.

“They just want to win and they want the best for their players,� Pettiford said. “Steven is just a different type of person. Cooler guy. He’s younger so he can understand us more. We can relate to him more, somebody we can just talk to.�

While Pettiford acknowledged that Auburn’s early games were “rough for me� — he shot a combined 2 for 14 from 3-point range in home games against Merrimack and Wofford — he had 24 points and four assists in the Tigers’ 84-73 win over Oregon in Las Vegas last week.

Against Michigan the next day, Pettiford hit 4 of 6 3-pointers but, like Gonzaga and San Diego State, nothing was enough to keep the Wolverines from smashing their way through three games at the Players Era event. Michigan beat Auburn 102-72.

But in Auburn’s final Players Era game, the Tigers beat St. John’s 85-74 while Pettiford had 27 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals.

That helped the Tigers get to 7-2 after they also beat N.C. State 83-73 on Wednesday, having lost only to Michigan and by a point to Houston in Birmingham, Ala., so far this season.

“He gets to sit at the head of the table!� Bruce Pearl said on TNT after the St. John’s game was played Thanksgiving Eve. “You think of the last 10 days — he’s gone against three Hall of Fame coaches: Kelvin Sampson (of Houston), Dana Altman (of Oregon) and Rick Pitino (of St. John’s). He’s ready.�

Bruce Pearl went on to say he’s always “had the best staff in college basketball,� and credited Auburn AD John Cohen for trusting Steven to take over the program, while also nodding to Pettiford.

“It helps having one of the best point guards in the country,� Bruce Pearl said. “He’s a flat-out playmaker. … What a huge win for Auburn. What a huge win for the SEC.�

Pettiford and the Tigers cooled off slightly on Wednesday, with the standout guard going 1 for 7 from the field and the team committing 20 turnovers that helped the Wolf Pack take 20 more field goals.

"I don't know how the hell we won that game," Steven Pearl said, later noting that playing Arizona next would be a "different animal."

"They have unbelievable size and they run great stuff," he said of the Wildcats. "That's going to challenge what we do defensively. We're really gonna have to game plan it and get ready."

But it is the wins, the struggles and the strategy — the teamwork — that Steven Pearl said he missed after his playing career ended at Tennessee in March 2011, when his father was fired as the Volunteers' head coach in the wake of multiple NCAA violations.

A month later, Bruce was handed a three-year show-cause order that effectively kept him from coaching in college, while Steven became a medical sales rep.

“As you know, our time at Tennessee didn't end on the highest note, and at that point I had been playing basketball pretty much every day for the previous 21, 22 years,� Steven told Auburn's Burcham. “I was just kind of burned out at that point, and seeing the stress that it put on our family, and on BP in particular, made me take a step back to kind of look at it and reevaluate what I was doing.�

But sales had its drawbacks, too. Three years later, after Bruce’s show-cause order expired and Auburn hired him, Steven joined him as an assistant strength and conditioning coach.

“I quickly realized when you're in that car by yourself after a big sale, you’ve got no one to celebrate with,� Steven said. “Or if you get shut out or rejected on a sale, you’ve got no one to pout with. As crazy as it sounds, I missed that camaraderie of a team, or of a staff, to be able to go through the high times, but also be able to go through the low times together.�

After one season in the conditioning role, Steven spent two years as director of basketball operations, then moved up to assistant coach, associate head coach and defensive coordinator.

Counting a one-game appearance in 2021-22, when he served as acting head coach in a win over North Alabama when Bruce served a two-game NCAA suspension, Steven is now 8-2 as a head coach.

So far this season, his Tigers rank 12th nationally in offensive efficiency and 61th in defensive efficiency, sitting at No. 20 in the Associated Press Top 25.

“For a first-time head coach taking over in the fall, under those circumstances, he's done a fantastic job,� said UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who has been scouting the Tigers in advance of their appearance at McKale on Saturday.

Murphy, once a head coach at NAU, said Steven Pearl had an advantage having already been on the staff and having recruited the current players, but said it has been a good transition considering the sudden change he had to deal with.

Beucase, while Steven Pearl has been at Auburn for over 11 years now, this one, so far, is like no other.

“It’s crazy where we are,� Steven Pearl said to Burcham. As an assistant “you were trying to find stuff to build your day out. Now your day is just built out for you. But it's been obviously a lot of fun.

“And luckily for me, I've been so fortunate to have been under BP’s wing for 38 years. I feel like I've been spending my entire life getting ready for this moment.�