Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl pledges support for Ukraine: 'We say never again'

GREENVILLE, S.C. — The last question of Bruce Pearl's press conference Saturday came from an unseen voice on Zoom. 

Inside BSW Arena, the Auburn basketball coach had spent the last 20 minutes previewing the Tigers' second-round NCAA Tournament game against 10-seed Miami on Sunday (6:45 p.m. CT, truTV). But the last question was regarding Stanford women's basketball coach Tara VanDerveer pledging $10 to Ukrainian war relief efforts for every 3-pointer made in the NCAA Tournament. She had challenged other coaches to join her.

Pearl was unaware of the pledge, but he answered by discussing his personal reasons for supporting such a cause.

"I sort of feel like this is a calling from up above," he started, quipping about the question coming from someone not in the room.

"This week the Jewish people are celebrating the festival of Purim," Pearl continued. "Purim is a celebration of what Queen Esther did. Queen Esther was with the King of Persia in the palace, and she was Jewish. Haman was a very close adviser to that King, and he was advising the King that maybe it was time to get rid of all the Jews. Queen Esther's uncle was Mordecai.

"My Hebrew name is Mordecai, and I think my family gave me that name for this reason. Mordecai talked to Esther the queen and said, 'Look, Esther, you might survive this for a little while, but you won't survive this. He's really going to kill all the Jewish people and your family.'

"And he gave Esther the courage to try to see if she could turn the King's heart, and she did. And saved the nation. So some of you may be uncomfortable — you guys asked the question, right? You asked the question about Ukraine. We say never again. I was born in 1960, 15 years after they opened up the gates, and they saw 6 million Jews were murdered and 3 million more people. So if Tara VanDerveer wants money for 3-pointers, I'll up whatever they're offering. I'm in. I'm all in. Help the Ukrainian people survive that.

"I'm very concerned about what's going on in Iran with the King of Persia now, and if we embody that government, give them all that money, sign a bad treaty, it's going to put the world in jeopardy."

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VanDerveer told a personal story about her time living and coaching in Kyiv, Ukraine, during a recent NCAA Tournament press conference. 

"One of the coaches that's here from Georgia Tech is Nell Fortner, who was my assistant at the Olympics, and about 26 years ago, about now, Nell and I were in the city of Kyiv," she said. "When our team was in Ukraine, we played the Ukraine national team at least 10 times. I would call them our cousins because we saw them in so many tournaments and played against them. So maybe I have an affinity for the country and watching what's happening has been really, really very hard.

"But when our team was leaving Ukraine, women, at 3:30 in the morning, were begging outside of our bus. And our team emptied their suitcases, emptied their wallets, and just were very generous. ... I hope that other people will get on board with this challenge. And after every NCAA Tournament day, we'll post how much I owe. And I'd like people to match the challenge. Did I get any takers? Even if it's a dime a three. I'm going $10 a three."