Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl has won at least 20 games in five of his past seasons, led the Tigers to the Final Four in 2019 and has produced seven NBA draft picks since he arrived on the Plains.

But while those on-court successes are nice, he didn't immediately point to them when asked by a young fan at Tiger Talk what he enjoys most about his job.

"The favorite part of my job is, in addition to game planning and strategizing and the chess match of coaching, it's probably just seeing the kids become great young men," Pearl said Thursday. "Seeing them graduate, seeing them become great teammates, seeing them become great fathers and sort of helping that process. In other words, as a coach or as a teacher or as a mentor or as sort of a step-father to the players, just watching them grow."

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Pearl is currently in his 10th season at Auburn. The Tigers (5-2), after starting 5-1, struggled to hit many of their shots on the way to a road loss at Appalachian State on Sunday. They'll have a chance to redeem themselves on a neutral floor against Indiana (7-1) in State Farm Arena on Saturday (1 p.m. CT, ESPN2).

"Watching them make mistakes. Watching them be happy, watching them cry and be sad. Just watching them develop into young men, that's probably the most satisfying this about the job," Pearl said.

"That and winning championships."

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on Twitter @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Bruce Pearl explains favorite part of being Auburn basketball's coach