SEC Network used a Bruce Pearl photo on a Frank Martin graphic.
ESPNLeague NetworksNCAABy Andrew Bucholtz on

Using images of the person you’re referencing often seems to be a challenge for media outlets, and the latest photo mixup comes from ESPN’s SEC Network broadcast of the NCAA basketball game between the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Ole Miss Rebels Wednesday. Alongside a graphic and a live shot of South Carolina coach Frank Martin, SEC Network used a photo of…Auburn coach Bruce Pearl.

https://twitter.com/BreakinDownFilm/status/1225209288903229446

Even South Carolina assistant athletic director for communications and public relations Steve Fink weighed in:

https://twitter.com/SteveFink_SID/status/1225214835287351296

Here’s the appearance of this on the broadcast:

 

The photo in question appears to be Pearl’s headshot from Auburn’s website, which is also the top image if you Google “Bruce Pearl.” So yeah, that’s a swing and a miss. And while mistakes happen and someone probably just pulled up the wrong file here, this is a particularly funny miss from the SEC Network, which you’d expect to know one SEC coach from another. (Also, this wasn’t a simple case of transposing the coaches in a game, as Auburn wasn’t even playing in this one.) And it hasn’t been a great couple of nights for identifications on SEC Network, as Tuesday night saw analyst Andy Kennedy initially identify a cutout of Ron Burgundy as one of Ron Jeremy.  Tuesday also saw ESPNU misidentify Tennessee player John Fulkerson:

Yep, that’s not John Fulkerson (who, for the record, scored a career-high 22 points in that game). Add that to the whoops pile.

[Clippit; H/T to @BFern09 on Twitter for alerting us to this]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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