Auburn basketball squares off against Michigan Friday in the Sweet 16 for a spot in Sunday’s Elite Eight.

It’s the first ever matchup between Auburn coach Bruce Pearl and Michigan’s Dusty May. However, it’s not the first time the two crossed paths.

May, a native of Terre Haute, Indiana played in a tournament at the University of Southern Indiana while at Oakland City.

“It’s not our first time crossing paths. I was sitting out as a Division II player at Oakland City. We played in USI’s tournament when Coach Pearl had the Screaming Eagles at the top of college basketball. Their university was 20 miles apart,” May said Thursday afternoon.

“Steven Pearl and I, we’ve crossed paths for years recruiting. Extremely familiar with Coach Pearl, when I was assistant at Florida was when he came into the league,” May added. “Couldn’t have more respect for the way he’s been able to sustain winning, build programs wherever he’s been, and been at the top of college basketball.”

Pearl coached at Southern Indiana from 1992-2001. His best memory of May was him hiring his former player at Auburn, KT Harrell as Florida Atlantic’s Director of Basketball Operations, who is also in that same role with the Wolverines.

Harrell was part of Pearl’s first team at Auburn as the team captain, ranking 25th all-time on the Tigers’ career scoring list.

“The third thing would simply be when he hired KT Harrell. KT was a great player for us at Auburn my very first year,” Pearl said. “The team had one or two players that belonged to the SEC. KT belonged not only to the SEC, but he was an SEC All-Star. We didn’t have that much to go around him, and our guys knew it. But they never quit.”

Another connection between the two coaches was how May’s breakfasts with Pearl’s late father, Bennie who lived in South Florida.

“His dad, when I took the FAU job, I was out trying to round up fans one at a time. I’d go to breakfast with old guys coaches and lunches,” May said. “His dad was in some group with some former players from the Celtics from the ‘30s or whatever, and they would meet and talk ball for lunch. I’d go and have breakfast with those guys and have lunch.”

Bruce Pearl confirmed the interaction and said May acknowledged how he remembered those outings with his father ahead of Friday’s game.

“Then my dad lived in South Florida, and my dad would sort of every now and then go to breakfast meetings with sort of basketball people down in Florida that love basketball,” Pearl said. “Dusty remembered my dad being at a couple of his breakfast meetings when he was trying to talk to basketball people about building the Florida Atlantic program.”

Michigan and Auburn are scheduled to tipoff tomorrow at 8:39 p.m. and the game will be televised on CBS.

Jerry Humphrey III covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Jerryhump3 or email him at [email protected].