Matt Gatens’ phone buzzed Sunday evening, not long after the CBS selection show revealed his Iowa team drew ninth-seeded Auburn in the opening-round of the NCAA Tournament.

It was a text from his former boss, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl.

“I’ve changed all the play calls, and I’ve changed all my signals, and we’re not running that anymore,” Pearl said, somewhat jokingly.

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Pearl didn’t want Gatens, who served as a graduate assistant at Auburn during the 2017-18 season and is now an assistant under Fran McCaffery at Iowa, to get the inside scoop on the teams’ first-round matchup, which is set for 5:50 p.m. CT at Birmingham’s Legacy Arena.

Then came another text from another familiar name from Gatens’ past. It was Mike Burgomaster, Auburn’s recruiting coordinator and assistant to the head coach. This one had less to do with the matchup and more to do with their last shared visit to Birmingham.

Back in 2017, when Gatens and Burgomaster were both GAs on Pearl’s staff, Auburn squared off against Middle Tennessee State at Legacy Arena in a game the Tigers won, 76-70, to get off to their best start since 1999. The night before that game, Auburn’s staffers took an outing to nearby Top Golf. It was one of the memories that immediately came to mind for Burgomaster when the bracket revealed Iowa as Auburn’s opponent in Birmingham, so he fired off the text to Gatens: “Are we going to go to Top Golf the night before the game?”

Burgomaster, like Pearl, was just “kind of joking” about the pre-gameday rendezvous, but the excitement about getting to have a reunion with his former off-the-court colleague was sincere.

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“Obviously there’s a fine line between being friendly, and obviously we got to do our jobs to prepare our guys to the best of our abilities,” Burgomaster said Wednesday. “So, there hasn’t been too much talk about the actual game, but we’re just trying to find a way to see each other and catch up a little bit while we’re still in the same city.”

For Gatens, the matchup with Auburn is a reminder of the humble beginnings of his coaching career. A former two-time All-Big Ten selection and two-time captain at Iowa, Gatens’ first foray into coaching following a career in the G League and overseas came at Auburn. He joined Pearl’s staff as a graduate assistant during the 2017-18 season, when he assisted with travel, development, scouting, video and running Auburn’s offseason camps.

Gatens had a prior relationship with Pearl before joining the Tigers’ staff. His father Mike Gatens — another former Iowa player under Lute Olson — was one of Pearl’s close friends during the coach’s time as an assistant at Iowa.

“He gave me a lot of insight on coaching from a player’s perspective, so it was really fun to kind of be in the trenches with him and be on the floor with the guys,” Burgomaster said of Gatens.

Gatens’ introduction to coaching was one he looks back on fondly—and it came during what proved to be a breakout season for Auburn under Pearl. While the 2017-18 season got off to an inauspicious start with the FBI scandal that rocked the sport—and ensnared then-Auburn assistant Chuck Person and led to suspensions for players Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy—it was an overall successful season on the Plains. Auburn went 26-8 overall, including a 13-5 mark in the SEC as the program won its first SEC regular-season title since 1999.

Auburn also earned its first NCAA Tournament berth of the Pearl era — and its first since 2003 — that year, drawing a four-seed in the Midwest Region and defeating College of Charleston in the opening round in San Diego.

“I was just a sponge in that first year and trying to learn everything, from helping out with travel to scouting — just everything to do with a program,” Gatens said.

Following his year on the Plains, Gatens took what he learned at Auburn and left for an opportunity at Drake, where he spent four seasons on staff. The first two were as director of operations before being promoted to assistant coach the next two years. During his time at Drake, the program posted four consecutive 20-win seasons and earned an NCAA Tournament bid in 2021.

Then mama called. He was presented with an opportunity to return to his alma mater and work as an assistant coach under another veteran coach in McCaffery. He jumped at the chance and helped guide Iowa to a 19-13 record and eight-seed in this year’s tournament.

Little did he know then that journey that began six years ago would come full circle in Birmingham with Iowa and Auburn meeting in the NCAA Tournament.

“What are the odds that we’re getting matched up in the first round?” Burgomaster said. “Matt’s the best. I’m really happy for him now that he’s back coaching at his alma mater. He has a really bright future ahead of him.”

Now it’s just a question of whether a reunion at Top Golf on Wednesday night will precede the one on the floor of Legacy Arena on Thursday evening.

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.