KANSAS CITY, Mo. – It's easy to root for Auburn. Pulling for Tigers coach Bruce Pearl? That's a bit more complicated.

Any live look-in to the Midwest Regional has to begin with the fifth-seeded Tigers being the lone remaining Cinderella in the bracket. That is, if you consider the same program winning SEC regular-season and tournament championships in back-to-back seasons a Cinderella story.

Also, if you understand college basketball history has already been made. Auburn became the first team ever to beat Kansas and North Carolina in back-to-back games in the NCAA Tournament.

If the Tigers knock off Kentucky in Sunday's Midwest Regional final, that would make it three straight wins over the top three winningest programs in the game's history.

Blueblood would be spilled all over the court.

"I feel like you can kind of look at us like that, " Auburn guard Bryce Brown said. "Cinderella, underdog. I don't know if there is a single game people haven't doubted us in the tournament so far."

But the innocence sort of stops there.  

As refreshing as the Tigers have been – their magic/ tragic story being played out in real time with the injury to forward Chuma Okeke – they are led by a jolly rogue.

Pearl's – let's say -- questionable decision-making goes back 30 years.  Two of his current players missed an entire season, suspended during the FBI investigation.

Pearl himself refused to speak to Auburn President Steve Leak when Pearl's assistant Chuck Person was arrested by the feds in late 2017.

But Pearl is also at the pinnacle of his career. His Elite Eights have come 10 years apart. The first, a decade ago at Tennessee where he rebuilt the Vols. Then after lying to NCAA investigators, being fired and serving a three-year show cause, Pearl resurfaced perhaps at one of the few schools that would hire him at the time.

In four years, he has taken the Tigers to the Elite Eight for the first time in 33 years.

"I think it's one of his greatest accomplishments he's ever had," said Auburn assistant Steve Pearl, Bruce's son.

That cannot be denied. Pearl has taken his chuck-and-chuck style everywhere he's been. It just happens to be more effective at Auburn than anywhere else with a cast of swift guards and pterodactyl-like forwards who are taught not to have a conscience.

 "I don't know why you wouldn't work and hunt for those shots," Pearl said. "So I've always believed it. Just because the Golden State Warriors figured it out, don't blame me. I've always shot the 3 ball."

Auburn is second nationally shooting 30.3 3-pointers per game. It is third making an average of 11.5. No. 1 Midwest seed North Carolina was overwhelmed in the semifinal going 17 of 37 from beyond the arc. You might have noticed their 12 3-pointers in the second half are more than they averaged all season.

And if you want to argue the Cinderella thing, No. 3 seed Texas Tech – winners over top seed Gonzaga on Saturday – won its conference and was higher-seeded than the Tigers.

Pearl keeps referring to his team's fourth-place finish in the SEC. LSU, Tennessee and Kentucky were all clearly better in the regular season.

"Probably not highly recruited players, probably haven't heard of our players," Brown said summing up the Auburn profile. "We have a few juco players. People on our team that are three stars, people that weren't highly recruited."

The Tigers revel in their non-star status.

"I wasn't recruited by any of those [top] schools," senior forward Horace Spencer said defiantly.

"I wasn't either," swingman Malik Dunbar chimed in. "Here and Ole Miss were my two biggest offers. I'm ready for whoever they put in front of us."

In the bowels of the Sprint Center late Friday night Pearl was asked if deep down, he thought he'd ever be back playing for a Final Four berth.

"I've been a head coach for 24 years, I've been to the NCAA Tournament 19 times," Pearl said after the win. "This is what we're supposed to do. This is not my first Elite Eight. We were out of coaching for a few years. I'm  blessed for the opportunity to get back. This is in my mind what we're here to do."

As John Calipari often does, when asked to size up Pearl from the outside he took a roundabout path. He invoked the name of the last Auburn coach to take the Tigers to the Elite Eight.

"Sonny Smith back in the day had it rolling. He had that guy -- what's his name? -- Charles, what's his last name? That big guy with the big head. What's his name? Oh, Charles Barkley," Calipari said.

"I peed on [Barkley's] statue down there, just so you know."

But seriously, folks. Auburn hasn't lost since a 27-point beat down at Rupp Arena Feb. 23.

"We got punked that game," forward Danjel Purifoy said. "We didn't come ready to play. Our coaches thought we could win the game. I don't think the players thought we could win the game. After that game we knew we couldn't get punked and pushed around."

Calipari knows the loss was likely a teaching moment for Auburn.

"I always say when things are going good, that's not coaching," Calipari said. "When things are … looking bleak and everybody is running, now let me see you coach.

"Let me see you do it when you're up against it, when people are doubting, when the outside clutter is starting to overwhelm, how do you coach now?

Pearl has been a master. In the 11-game winning streak the Tigers have won the SEC Tournament and beat four ranked teams.

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Auburn's Bruce Pearl is enjoying the Tigers' NCAA Tournament run USATSI

After beating North Carolina on Friday in the biggest game in Auburn history, a win over Kentucky on Sunday would top it.

The Tigers would do it with juniors Purifoy and Austin Wiley playing expanded roles with the loss of Okeke. Both Wiley and Purifoy sat out the entire 2017-18 season after their names came up in the federal investigation into Person.

Person allegedly paid Purifoy's mother $11,000 to steer the player to a financial advisor acting as an informant for the FBI. Purifoy was the Tigers' second-leading scorer in 2106-17 before being suspended.

Wiley's mother reportedly got $7,500.

It was eventually 611 days between games for Wiley at Auburn. Purifoy missed more than 21 months after sitting out the first nine games of this season.

Purifoy was the team's second-leading scorer in 2016-17. The season before he was held out after concerns surfaced about his ACT score and high-school transcript.

Wiley is one of those spindly, wingspan forwards that Pearl seems to love.

"I learned a lot," Purifoy said of his time out of the game. "It made me a man."

Shortly after the FBI story broke, Auburn launched an internal review of the program. Person was among three basketball staffers fired or suspended.

"Having three of his employees suspended or terminated is troublesome at best.," Leath wrote in an email to fans in November 2017. "His unwillingness to even talk to me about it is particularly troublesome."

Six months later, athletic director Allen Greene said Pearl would "absolutely" be back for a fourth season. This is that season, arguably the best on Auburn history.

How fast is this program turning around? In the same 2017-18 season, Auburn lost an exhibition to Division II Barry University and also won a share of the SEC.

This season Auburn is transforming itself into some sort of tiger-stripped Cinderella.

One of the few certainties is the SEC will have a team in the Final Four. Kentucky is a 4.5-point favorite because it has been here 8,000 times before. A Final Four would be a first for Auburn, a high major inspiration because of that jolly rogue.

"We're talented, but when you may not be quite as talented, you have to have some things up your sleeve," Pearl said. "I've played a lot of cards. I don't know how many more cards we have to play, but these guys believe."