Auburn basketball icon Charles Barkley jokes that he feels like his time as a student-athlete at Auburn was 100 years ago.

But it was really just over 40 years ago that Barkley sported the No. 34 jersey for the Tigers. However, when you think about the direction of the Auburn men’s basketball program since then, it does feel like it’s been much longer than that.

Before Barkley arrived to The Plains in 1981, the Tigers had never appeared in the NCAA Tournament.

With “Sir Charles” leading the way during a season he was also crowned the SEC’s Player of the Year, Auburn finally punched its ticket to the big dance in 1984.

In the years immediately following Barkley’s time at Auburn, the Tigers continued to be NCAA Tournament contenders before seeing a drop off in the early- and mid-1990s. Auburn returned to the tournament just before the turn of millennium in 1999 and then again in 2000 and 2003.

But then Auburn experienced a 15-year drought and didn’t return to the tournament until the 2018 season.

“I gotta tell you, as much as I love Auburn and have high expectations, I never thought Auburn would make it to the Final Four… ever,” Barkley told media members ahead of Monday’s Bruce, Barkley and Basketball charity golf event.

So when Bruce Pearl led the Tigers to the Final Four in 2019, you can bet it was a pleasant surprise.

And that pleasant surprise has sense changed the expectations of Auburn men’s basketball.

“Ever since we made it to the Final Four one time, that changed the whole dynamics of the program,” Barkley said.

At the root of Auburn’s turning tables was Pearl, who was hired in 2014 and is set to lead the Tigers for season No. 10 this year.

“My goal in coming to Auburn was to get the basketball program up to the level of excellence that the rest of the sports programs enjoyed and the other parts of the university enjoyed,” Pearl said ahead of Auburn’s first practice on Sept. 26. “So whatever that means.”

The Tigers’ football program was having ample success when Pearl first arrived having won the national championship in 2010 and playing for another in 2013.

Simply put, Auburn was deemed a “football school”.

“Unfortunately, for most of our existence, there haven’t been expectations,” Barkley said of the Auburn basketball program Monday. “And to get to the point where we’re expected to do well? That’s pretty cool and special.”

Since advancing to the Final Four in 2019, the Tigers have punched their tickets to two NCAA tournaments — both coming in the two most recent seasons, but making a second-round exit both times.

Last year, Auburn fell to the University of Houston in an 81-64 decision from Birmingham’s Legacy Arena.

“A win over Houston takes a good season and makes it a very good season,” Pearl said. “Last year was a good season. It wasn’t much more than that.”

Barkley says he thought Auburn did all it could do last year, but that didn’t stop fans from being disappointed.

And to Auburn’s former big man, that’s a great problem to have.

“It’s really a great time. Like man, we’re excited for basketball season,” Barkley said. “You know, no disrespect to anybody, but Auburn has got to the point like, wow, if Auburn don’t go to the NCAA Tournament, it’s a bad year. And that’s pretty cool.”

What does that mean for the future of the Tigers’ basketball program? Barkley isn’t entirely sure.

Though Barkley has been in Auburn all weekend to watch Hugh Freeze and the Auburn football nearly knock off the No. 1 team in the country and help both the Tigers’ football and basketball programs try to recruit blue-chip talent, he and Pearl haven’t had a ton of time to talk hoops.

“It’s just been a fun weekend,” Barkley said. “I’ll get on that pretty soon. I know he’s excited about the team… I never worry about our coach. We got the best coach in the SEC, in my opinion. Nobody is going to out-strategize us. Our staff is fantastic. Now the kids gotta implement it.”