Soon after the news of the Auburn Tigers firing their general manager right before the regular season, the program has announced that there are not any current plans to make a replacement as things kick into full gear.
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The Tigers took down the Samford Bulldogs 80-68 on Thursday night in Neville Arena, just three days after General Manager Brian Kloman was fired from his duties.
In his postgame presser, Head Coach Steven Pearl said there will not be one singular person filling his role, but rather a collective effort.
"We'll work by committee,” Pearl said. “We'll, as a staff, just kind of go through some of the things that Brian was doing and try and divvy up some of those responsibilities and collectively as a group work through those things together.”
Kloman was fired from his position on Monday at the end of a situation involving the eligibility of former Auburn wing Mantas Rubštavičius.
Rubštavičius was fighting against the NCAA in an attempt to gain eligibility for the 2026-2027 basketball season, a general subject that has taken the college basketball realm by a storm.
The wing from Lithuania was originally denied eligibility, to which Rubštavičius proceeded to sue the NCAA in a Lee County court in an attempt to continue his fight to get on the court.
Rubštavičius was attempting to become a first-year student on the Plains, but a source confirmed to Auburn Undercover that Kloman had knowledge of classes that the wing had previously enrolled in in Europe. However, Kloman had not shared that information with the Tigers’ program.
The former Lithuanian pro’s enrollment in those classes put up a barrier in terms of how much eligibility he might have, if any, forcing Rubštavičius into a sticky situation. As a result, the wing’s attorney withdrew his lawsuit on Monday, ending the case.
Auburn has never had a general manager for its program up to this point. Even with that, Pearl stated that the Tigers will utilize their administration in a big way in order to help move things along, which includes Brett Whiteside, the executive senior associate athletics director. Whiteside will be working a lot alongside Pearl in terms of communication and compliance.
At the end of the day though, Pearl said this period of time will be all about working through things together as a staff in order to get things done.
“One of the benefits for us is we have a great team in our administration to help us,” Pearl said. “It's by committee for our staff at this point and we got to do a good job kind of navigating these next couple months. But right now, we're just going to kind of keep the staff as it is and work through it together."
Auburn opens up the second season of Pearl’s time as head coach on Wednesday, Nov. 4, when it will take on Southeastern Louisiana Lions at 7 p.m. at Neville Arena.
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
