St. John’s Pitino, Auburn’s Pearl Named AP Co-Coaches Of The Year

Rick Pitino of St. John’s and Bruce Pearl of Auburn were named the 2025 Associated Press (AP) National Co-Coaches of the Year on Friday in San Antonio.

For the first time in the 58-year history of the AP National Coach of the Year award there was a tie in voting as Pitino and Pearl will both receive the accolade. The Johnnies lead man becomes the first coach in St. John’s history to earn the honor and just the sixth in the history of the BIG EAST. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer joins Marquette’s Shaka Smart (2023), Notre Dame’s Mike Brey (2011), Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim (2010), Pittsburgh’s Ben Howland (2002) and Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun (1990) as the league’s representatives in an elite fraternity.

“The best coach I’ve ever gone up against was Rick Pitino,” said Pearl. He added that Pitino has become “one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game at any level.”

Pearl, 65, has guided Auburn (32-5) to its second Final Four since 2019 and is seeking the program’s first NCAA championship. The Tigers will face SEC rival Florida in the first national semifinal Saturday night at the Alamodome.

“We’re excited about being back at the Final Four,” Pearl said Thursday. “You don’t know that you’re ever going to get there once in your career, so you feel incredibly blessed and grateful to have a second opportunity.

“Proud of our team for playing probably the most ambitious non-conference schedule we’ve ever played, and then have to go through the grind of playing in what was the best conference in college men’s basketball in history of the NCAA.

“To be able to come out of that as a regular-season champion was quite an accomplishment. The question then was, Is there any more step up in your game? ‘Cause that’s what you have to do in March.”

Pearl is one of three Jewish coaches in the Final Four along with Todd Golden (Florida) and Jon Scheyer (Duke).

“I think as a young Jewish boy growing up in Boston, I would have been proud,” Pearl said.

‘(Golden and Scheyer) are both young mensches and it’s easier to be a young mensch than an old one these days,” Pearl added.

Pitino, 72, led St. John’s (31-5) to the Big East regular-season and Tournament titles after the Red Storm were picked fifth in the Big East.

In just his second year at the school, he became the first coach to win a regular-season title with five different schools and to lead six teams to the NCAA Tournament.

St. John’s was a 2 seed but was upset by John Calipari and No. 10 Arkansas in the second round in Providence.

“I hate to see them go out this way,” Pitino said after the loss. “We thought we were championship-driven in our minds, but I have been disappointed before with this. You hate to see us play like that. I don’t mind going out with a loss, I just hate to see us play that way offensively. You gotta live with it. You put in a lot of time and effort, the coaches did, and it’s just a bitter pill to swallow with that type of performance.

“We’ll give the credit to Arkansas and I’ll be very, very thankful to those three guys [Richmond, Deivon Smith and Aaron Scott] for giving me everything they had and we move on.”