{"id":86891,"date":"2025-03-28T16:57:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T21:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=86891"},"modified":"2025-03-28T16:57:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T21:57:17","slug":"danny-wolf-and-bruce-pearl-two-of-march-madness-most-prominent-jews-are-about-to-face-off-in-a-shabbat-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/danny-wolf-and-bruce-pearl-two-of-march-madness-most-prominent-jews-are-about-to-face-off-in-a-shabbat-showdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Danny Wolf and Bruce Pearl \u2014 two of March Madness\u2019 most prominent Jews \u2014 are about to face off in a Shabbat Showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By BEN SALES<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 This year\u2019s NCAA college basketball tournament has, so far, been a good one for its most prominent Jewish personalities. Going into Friday night, four coaches of top teams, and one star on the court, are all still alive.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_86892\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pearl-wolf.webp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-86892\" class=\"wp-image-86892 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pearl-wolf-300x167.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pearl-wolf-300x167.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pearl-wolf-1024x569.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pearl-wolf-768x427.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pearl-wolf-1536x853.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pearl-wolf-2048x1138.webp 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/167;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-86892\" class=\"wp-image-86892 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pearl-wolf-300x167.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pearl-wolf-300x167.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pearl-wolf-1024x569.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pearl-wolf-768x427.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pearl-wolf-1536x853.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pearl-wolf-2048x1138.webp 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-86892\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bruce Pearl (left) and Danny Wolf. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>But by the time Saturday night rolls around, at least one of those people is going to be heading home.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because Friday night, in addition to being the beginning of Shabbat, is when Jewish player Danny Wolf\u2019s No. 5 Michigan will face off against No. 1 Auburn, led by Jewish coach Bruce Pearl.<\/p>\n<p>The Shabbat Showdown between Wolf and Pearl is March Madness\u2019 highest-profile Jewish face-off yet.<\/p>\n<p>Wolf, a 7-foot junior who\u2019s a threat in the lane and at the three-point line, has had a standout college career and is expected to be drafted into the NBA later this year. An Israeli-American, he attended Jewish day school, has faced antisemitism on the court and values the opportunity to dispel stereotypes about Jews and sports.<\/p>\n<p>Pearl, who is Auburn\u2019s all-time winningest coach, is outspoken about his Jewish identity and support for Israel. He took his team to Israel in 2022 and recently used a postgame press conference to draw awareness to Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage held by Hamas in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Auburn is favored to win on Friday night and advance to the Elite Eight \u2014 but there\u2019s nothing the bracket loves more than an upset. No matter who wins, another Jewish matchup is possible in the Final Four \u2014 or even the championship game.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Danny%20Wolf%20and%20Bruce%20Pearl%20%E2%80%94%20two%20of%20March%20Madness%E2%80%99%20most%20prominent%20Jews%20%E2%80%94%20are%20about%20to%20face%20off%20in%20a%20Shabbat%20Showdown\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":86892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1491],"tags":[14526,5270,14492,8790,8795,14461,2182,6866,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86891"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86893,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86891\/revisions\/86893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}