A big crowd welcomed Auburn men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl Monday night at the final Selma Quarterback Club meeting of the year.

Pearl signed autographs and then told members his hopes of turning around the Tigers’ basketball program, which he said starts with lifting expectations.

“We are going to be relevant at Auburn,” Pearl said. “I have no doubt in my mind that we can do it. Everything is in place. I’m not trying to do anything that hasn’t been done before.”

Pearl created a stir early when he said under his leadership, the basketball program would achieve what Gus Malzhan did in his first season leading the Auburn football team. Then, he delivered the punch line.

“I think I can get eleven games out of this bunch,” Pearl joked. “Did Gus win twelve his first year? I think he won eleven.”

Eleven it was, although Malzahn’s first team also made the BCS national championship.

Pearl, whose current team is 3-4 with road or neutral site losses against Colorado, Tulsa and Texas Tech, knows he can turn around the Tigers, but even he admits it’s not going to happen overnight.

“Like any investment, there’s going to take a little bit of time before there’s a return, but there will be a return,” Pearl said.

Pearl, with his charismatic personality, kept the quarterback club chuckling most of the evening.

He was asked about the NBA’s one and done rule, which forces players to attend college for at least one season, his ties to rival Alabama and which college coach he likes to beat the most.

He also spent time discussing the strength of the SEC from a basketball standpoint, noting that two league teams made the NCAA Final Four last year, while only one — Alabama — made it in football. Based on early returns, he thinks the SEC will be competitive again this season.

“I think the league can get four or five teams in the NCAA Tournament when it’s all said and done,” Pearl said.

Pearl’s teams at Tennessee made the NCAA Tournament all six years he was there and he was named SEC coach of the year in 2006 and 2008.