With a 32-6 overall record and a 15-3 record in the SEC, the Auburn Tigers, led by Bruce Pearl, qualified for the NCAA Tournament as the top seed and made it to the Final Four for the second time in their history.
In the process, Auburn won the Maui Invitational, won its sixth SEC regular-season championship, and finished the season at number four in the AP rankings.
Ian Borders, a vital component of Pearl’s staff since 2018, will be promoted to assistant coach for the men’s program as the squad gets ready for another deep run in 2025–2026.
Soon later, Auburn celebrated the milestone on X by simply writing, “Much deserved 👏” in appreciation of Borders’s ever growing significance.
Borders brings a diverse resume to his current position. Borders, who graduated from the University of Louisville in 2007, earned two more degrees from Western Kentucky in 2010 and 2015, and in 2017 he earned a master’s degree in sport management from Florida State.
Prior to taking on video coordination responsibilities at Little Rock (2016–18) and Auburn (2018–23), he began his coaching career as an assistant at South Oldham High School (2010–15). He then advanced to the Division I levels as a graduate assistant under Leonard Hamilton at Florida State (2015–17).
During Auburn’s incredible journey to the 2019 Final Four, when the Tigers became the only school to defeat Kansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina in back-to-back NCAA Tournament games, Borders handled video operations during his first season on The Plains.
After that, he moved on to become Director of Scouting and Recruiting, where he assisted Auburn in winning 25 games in a row from 2018 to 2021.
In his new role as assistant coach, Borders will expand his responsibilities to include recruiting, scouting, and player development.
Pearl upholds a culture of loyalty and deserved opportunity by honoring a coach who has worked tirelessly behind the scenes for seven seasons.
