That Auburn has advanced to the semifinals of the SEC Tournament isn’t just surprising; anyone who might have suggested such a thing earlier this week would have been laughed out of Bridgestone Arena. But here they are, and their reward for pulling off three straight upsets? That very Kentucky team that Pearl told them they could not beat. Lest anyone think that Pearl was being unfair to his team by suggesting that it is incapable of beating a fellow SEC school, there’s nobody in America who would disagree with his premise. The Tigers are one of the smallest teams in the country and the Wildcats are the biggest. Pearl knows that getting past the vaunted Wildcats is something too hard to even contemplate. In his postgame comments, he talked about the Tigers being “short-handed,” admitted it will be a “tough matchup,” and said his team “will try to represent.”

While those might not sound like confident words from a coach who believes his team has a fighter’s chance of logging what would be a monumental if not inconceivable upset, Pearl will surely admit that Auburn has already accomplished more than enough here to deem its trip to Nashville a success. Thanks to the play of second-team all-SEC performer KT Harrell, the Tigers have defeated two NCAA Tournament bubble teams in the past two days. And while his first go-round on his second tour of duty in the league has been anything but a walk in the park, his program stands to benefit from all the recognition it has gotten this week, sending a loud and clear message that Auburn will be back under his direction.

The Tigers had not won a single SEC Tournament game in the last five years. Now, they’ll take the stage against a team that it is on a mission to finish with a historic 40-0 record. Pearl knows that things might get ugly in the same way that they did on the team’s visit to Lexington three weeks ago — a 110-75 Wildcats victory. He knows that the gigantic Wildcats will own the glass, much like they did when they doubled up the Tigers in that game (44-22). But Pearl also knows that none of that matters now because his team has done more than anybody expected. As his program creeps back from irrelevance over the next few years – and make no mistake, that trajectory will happen – Pearl may be able to refer back to this week in Nashville as the program’s turning point.