Bruce Pearl Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Earlier this week, Auburn Tigers men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl shared a post calling out Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris as a “socialist” with “woke progressive” beliefs, sparking criticism from the media who suggested that his political beliefs could and should hurt his recruiting efforts. And Pearl offered a pretty firm response to that this week.

During a recent appearance on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich,” Bruce Pearl responded to all the criticism he received as he explained why he thinks players should come and play for him at Auburn.

“They should come to Auburn because it’s an amazing school,” Peal said. “It lives by the Auburn creed. We can have these discussions on our campus. If you want to pray before your meal, you’re gonna be comfortable to pray before your meal at Auburn. It is safe.

“It is a little bit leaning conservative, but if you love your God, if you love your country, if you want to love your neighbor, if you want to be great, Auburn is an amazing place to come.”

Pearl then shared his track record of recruiting Black players and helping get them to the NBA.

“You know, I was looking at it the other day,” he said. “They were talking about why would somebody come play for us, particularly an African American family, I’m like, you know what, we got six guys from Atlanta in the NBA. Nobody in the last five or six years has gotten more men… I’m proud of that and those guys are unbelievable kids, and they’re doing really, really well.

“So, I think kids are going to decide to come and play for coaches that are gonna hold them accountable, they’re gonna coach ‘em hard, they’re gonna love ‘em hard. And this other stuff, that’s just secondary.… Don’t worry about what people say. I really worry more about what I gotta do, the job I gotta do.”

[Fox News]