Charles Barkley is angered by Auburn’s hiring of Gene Chizik, telling ESPN.com that his alma mater didn’t hire Turner Gill (pic above) because the Buffalo coach is African American.

“I think race was the #1 factor. You can say it’s not about race, but you can’t compare the two resumes and say (Chizik) deserved the job. Out of all the coaches they interviewed, Chizik probably had the worst resume.”

Barkley added, “I just thought Turner Gill would be the perfect choice for two reasons. He’s a terrific coach and we needed to make a splash. I thought we had to do something spectacular to bring attention to the program. Clearly, if we’d hired a African American coach, it would have created a buzz.”

Barkley played basketball for the Tigers for three years in the early 1980s before embarking on a Hall Of Fame career in the NBA. He currently is an NBA analyst for TNT.

Tommy Tuberville was forced to resign as Auburn’s football coach this month after going 85-40 in 10 seasons. He was replaced by Chizik, who served as defensive coordinator at Auburn and Texas before taking the head-coaching job at Iowa State, where he went 5-19 in two seasons.

Gill, a former Nebraska QB, took his team to the MAC title this season. He is one of four African American head coaches in Division 1-A out of 119 schools.