Auburn men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl is expected to retire, according to multiple reports.
Per the reports, Pearl’s son Steven Pearl is expected to take over as Auburn’s head coach.
Pearl, 65, has coached Auburn for 11 seasons. The Tigers have advanced to six out of the last seven NCAA tournaments under Pearl’s watch. They advanced to the Final Four twice, including in 2025 with All-American Johni Broome at center.
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Pearl previously served as the head coach at Tennessee for six seasons and at Milwaukee for four seasons before that. Pearl coached Milwaukee to the NCAA tournament twice and Tennessee to the NCAA tournament in each of his six seasons.
Pearl will retire with a 477-224 record (.680) as an NCAA head coach. He was a three-time Horizon League Coach of the Year at Milwaukee and was named SEC Coach of the Year four times, twice each at Tennessee and Auburn.
Pearl was named the Associated Press National Coach of the Year in 2025 for coaching an Auburn team that spent much of the season ranked No. 1 in the country. The Tigers finished 32-6 and lost to eventual national champion Florida in the Final Four.
Tennessee fired Pearl in 2011 amid a scandal in which Pearl was found to have committed recruiting violations and then lied to the NCAA during its investigation into the violations. The NCAA charged Pearl with unethical conduct and issued him a three-year show-cause penalty for his role in the scandal.
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The scandal prompted Tennessee to dismiss Pearl despite his role in developing Tennessee into an SEC power and NCAA tournament mainstay. Prior to Pearl’s arrival, Tennessee had missed the NCAA tournament in four consecutive seasons. In the 22 seasons before he took over, Tennessee made the NCAA tournament just five times.
This story will be updated.