AUBURN, Ala. – Just like he would during an Auburn basketball game when he had something significant to communicate to his team, Bruce Pearl called timeout during Wednesday's Facebook Live session.
"Where in the world would we be without the caregivers?" Pearl asked during his 30-minute discussion with Mark Wilson, director of Auburn University's Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for Arts & Humanities at Pebble Hill. "Those people are on the front lines. They go to work every day putting their lives on the line to save others. What an incredible ministry.
"Right now, you can't give them a hug, because we've got to keep our distance," Pearl said. "Say thank you. Next time I see a doctor or a nurse in their gown at a breakfast place, I'm buying them breakfast."
In a talk titled "Human Resilience in Troubling Times: Stories from Coaching and Life," Pearl shared how the nationwide response to slow the spread of COVID-19 affected Auburn's basketball team, costing the Tigers an opportunity to defend their SEC Tournament championship and potentially return to the Final Four.
"We're fine," he said. "Life's different right now. I miss my players. I don't know if they miss me but I miss them because we were around each other all day, every day. I feel especially bad for the seniors because this team really embraced making history and making their own history.
"We lost so many good players from that Final Four team a year ago. This team was supposed to be good, not great. And in many ways, they were great.
"We've never seen anything quite like this year's March Madness because the whole world is going through it in a different way. In times like these, you do reflect. Memories matter. You do hold dear some of the fun experiences that you've gone through so for us, reliving last year's run to the Final Four, a run that had to go through the blue bloods of the world of college basketball as Auburn was trying to carve out its niche in the world of credibility in college basketball."
The public health and economic adversity Americans are facing presents an opportunity, Pearl said.
"You want to try to prepare your teams, and you want to try to prepare young people, to be their best when things are at their worst," he said. "We can all sail the ship when the winds are calm and the seas are favorable.
"I don't want to have a bunch of adversity to have my character built, but I do know, in troubling times it's going to get revealed. So therefore, you have an opportunity in difficult times to separate yourself.
"Right now, there are a lot of things that are being revealed about who's going to be able to be all hands on deck and get through the storm, and who's going to be jumping overboard."
Pearl encouraged people to invest extra time reaching out to loved ones, friends and neighbors during the coronavirus epidemic.
"Whose life can you touch?" Pearl asked. "Pick up the phone, get on FaceTime and make sure people you know, know that they matter. Don't ignore them."
Pearl concluded his talk by challenging Auburn University students to lead by embracing the challenges that accompany remote instruction. He encouraged everyone to follow the now familiar guidelines regarding hand washing and social distancing to prevent the health care system from being overrun.
"We need to do our part by keeping our distance, by paying attention, by staying at home," he said. "Let's do what we're told. Let's play by the rules. Let's understand that the more we play by these rules now, the sooner we're going to get back to what we know as to be normal. We're going to get through this together."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer