SAN ANTONIO – For the first time in his career, Auburn head basketball coach Bruce Pearl has been named AP Coach of the Year. He will share the title with St. John’s Rick Pitino for the first time in the 58-year history of the award.
The accolades are beginning to pile up for the Tigers’ 11th-year head coach as he collected his second SEC Coach of the Year after leading Auburn to an SEC regular season title, while also boasting the NABC Division I Coach of the Year. Pearl is the first SEC head coach to win the prestigious award since John Calipari did so 10 years ago, and he joins Cliff Ellis in 1999 as the only Auburn men’s basketball coaches to win AP Coach of the Year honors.
Pearl led the Tigers to a program-best 32 wins this season and had Auburn ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 Poll for eight straight weeks, making it one of only two SEC teams to ever be ranked No. 1 for at least six straight weeks in the AP Poll.
He’ll have an opportunity to improve that feat on Saturday against No. 1 seed Florida in the Final Four at the Alamodome.
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