On the day most college basketball programs started official practice for the 2025–26 season, one of the sport’s most recognizable head coaches announced he was walking away.
Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl retired Monday, announcing his decision in a 14-minute address the school posted less than an hour after ESPN broke the news. The winningest coach in Auburn history, Pearl took a school with perhaps the worst basketball tradition in the SEC to a pair of Final Fours and ignited the Tigers’ fan base into one of the most rabid in the sport. He made Auburn into what he called an “everything school,” trying to shed the program’s football-first label and proving it could compete with the best on the hardwood.
