Auburn’s Bruce Pearl named semifinalist for Naismith Coach of the Year

The individual accolades keeping coming for Auburn men’s basketball.

This time it’s for head coach Bruce Pearl, who was named a semifinalist for Naismith National Coach of the Year Friday morning. The nomination comes after Pearl already won Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year.

Pearl led Auburn to an SEC regular season championship and a 27-4 record, matching the highest regular season win total in Auburn men’s basketball history. It included 16 Quad I wins, more than any other team in the country this season.

The other semifinalists for the award include Dennis Gates of Missouri, Todd Golden of Florida, Tom Izzo of Michigan State, Pat Kelsey of Louisville, Grant McCasland of Texas Tech, Ben McCollum of Drake, Rick Pitino of St. John’s, Kelvin Sampson of Houston and Jon Scheyer of Duke.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *