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Auburn Basketball History: Best Players, Greatest Coach, March Madness, SEC Tournament Results
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They don’t roll the trees at Toomer’s Corner for basketball victories at Auburn the way they do for football. But that might soon change if the Tigers continue their upward trend and bring home a national championship.
Although they have yet to get over the hump, they’ve become one of the premier programs in the SEC and nationally since the arrival of coach Bruce Pearl in 2014 while producing championship-caliber teams and Player of the Year candidates.
This page explores Auburn’s basketball history, best players, teams, coaches and more.
How Many Times Has Auburn Been to The NCAA Tournament?
In 2025, the Tigers made their 14th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and fourth in a row. Their first appearance was in the 1984 NCAA Tournament. Charles Barkley and Chuck Person led that team.
What Is The Farthest The Tigers Have Advanced in The NCAA Tournament?
Auburn has reached the Final Four twice, in 2019 and again in 2025.
The Tigers reached the Final Four for the first time in 2019 by beating SEC rival Kentucky in overtime in the Midwest Region final. The Tigers came within a controversial last-second foul call in a 63-62 national semifinal loss to Virginia from playing for the national championship. The Tigers returned to the Final Four in 2025, earning their ticket to college basketball’s premier event by beating Michigan State in the NCAA South Region Final behind a standout performance from Player of the Year candidate Jhoni Broome. The Tigers lost to Florida in the Final Four.
How Many SEC Tournaments Has Auburn Won?
The Tigers never won a championship in the original SEC Tournament, which was discontinued in 1950. They’ve won 3 titles, however, since the event was resurrected in 1974.
The most recent came in 2024 when Most Outstanding Player Johni Broome led Auburn to an 86-67 win against Florida in the final at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Auburn also cut down the nets in 2019 with Bryce Brown earning MOP honors in an 84-64 win against Tennessee, also in Nashville, that served as a springboard for its Final Four run.
The other championship was earned in 1985 as the No. 8 seed in a 10-team tournament and it helped save coach Sonny Smith’s job. Smith had already announced his resignation. But after MOP Chuck Person and his teammates pulled off 4 straight narrow victories – including a 53-49 overtime triumph against rival Alabama in Birmingham – the decision was reversed and Smith stayed on for another 4 years and 3 more NCAA Tournament appearances.
In addition to the Tournament titles, Auburn has also won 5 SEC regular season championships, in 1960, 1999, 2018, 2022 and 2025.
Has Auburn Ever Been Ranked No. 1 in The AP Poll?
Yes. The Tigers reached the top of the national rankings for the first time in its then-116-year basketball history on Jan. 24, 2022, supplanting Gonzaga with 45 first-place votes among the 60-member voting panel. Auburn was 17-1 at the time. It held onto the No. 1 ranking for 3 weeks before falling to No. 2 after an overtime at Arkansas on Feb. 8.
Auburn returned to the top of the poll again on Jan. 13, 2025. This time they held onto the ranking for 7 weeks before falling to No. 3 in the final regular season rankings after back-to-back losses to Texas A&M and Alabama.
How Many First-Round NBA Picks Have The Tigers Produced?
Entering the 2025 NBA Draft, Auburn has had 10 players selected in the first round of the NBA Draft. Four-time All-SEC forward Mike Mitchell was the first, going to the Cleveland Cavaliers with the 15th overall pick in 1978.
Future NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley became the Tigers’ next first-rounder when he was taken at No. 5 by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1984. His selection was the first in a string of high picks that included Chuck Person (No. 4 to Indiana) in 1986, SEC Player of the Year Chris Morris (No. 14 to New Jersey) in 1988 and Wesley Person (No. 23 to Phoenix) in 1994.
Auburn had only 1 more first-rounder over the next 25 years, Mamadou N’Diaye to the Denver Nuggets at No. 26 in 2000. But the pipeline reopened in 2019 with Chuma Okeke’s selection at No. 16 by Orlando in 2019, followed by Isaac Okoro at No. 5 by Cleveland in 2020.
The Tigers had 2 players selected in the first round in 2022. Jabari Smith became the highest pick in program history when he was taken No. 3 overall by the Houston Rockets before big man Walker Kessler was taken by the Memphis Grizzlies at No. 22.
Auburn’s Notable Coaches
Ralph “Shug” Jordan
No, that’s not a misprint. The winningest football coach in Auburn football history started his career as the Tigers’ basketball coach. He spent 9 seasons on the sidelines from 1933-42 before being called to military service in World War II and another in 1945-46 upon his return before leaving to coach at Georgia. His 95 wins still rank fifth all-time among Auburn coaches. After 5 seasons with the Bulldogs, Jordan came back to The Plains, where he compiled 176 victories in a 25-year Hall of Fame football career.
Joel Eaves
A former player under Jordan from 1934-37, Eaves led Auburn to its first SEC championship and earned conference Coach of the Year honors by going 12-2 in the conference in 1959-60. Eaves coached the Tigers for 14 seasons, finishing with a 213-100 record that earned him induction into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. In 1987, Auburn’s former home arena was re-named Joel H. Eaves Memorial Coliseum in his honor.
Sonny Smith
Smith won 173 games in 11 seasons coaching the Tigers, leading them to 5 straight NCAA Tournaments from 1984-88, including a run to the 1986 Elite Eight that was the program’s deepest advancement until the 2019 Final Four. Smith was also the first Auburn coach to win an SEC Tournament championship, the first to post 3 straight 20-win seasons and the first to win multiple SEC Coach of the Year Awards, bringing home the honor in 1984 and 1988.
Cliff Ellis
Ellis is best remembered for his quirky personality, but he was also a successful coach who won 186 games in his 10 seasons at Auburn. The high-water mark of his career with the Tigers came in 1998-99, when his team won the SEC regular season championship and earned a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed for the first time in school history. Ellis was named national Coach of the Year after taking that team to the Sweet 16. Auburn made 2 other NCAA appearances under Ellis, in 200 and 2003, before he left under the cloud of NCAA recruiting violations in 2004.
Bruce Pearl
Pearl has taken Auburn basketball to new heights since becoming the 20th coach in program history in March 2014. He has catapulted the Tigers onto the national radar by taking them to the Final Four in 2019, leading them to their first No. 1 national ranking in 2022 and winning 3 SEC regular season championships and 2 tournament titles. In 2025, Pearl got Auburn back to the Final Four. He surpassed Eaves as the school’s winningest coach. He finished the 2024-25 with 246 wins at Auburn.
Auburn’s All-Time Starting Five
The Tigers could make a deep run into the NCAA Tournament with this group of All-Americans and NBA Draft picks on the floor together:
Point guard: John Mengelt
Nicknamed “Crash” because of the aggressiveness with which he played, Mengelt was an All-SEC selection in all 3 of his varsity seasons from 1968-71. In addition to being a skilled ballhandler and playmaker, the 6-3 Mengelt was also one of the most prolific scorers in program history. His 1,920 points still rank No. 5 on Auburn’s all-time list, despite playing only 3 seasons with no 3-point shot. He also owns the top 4 scoring games by a Tiger, including a school-record 60 points against Alabama in 1970.
Shooting guard: Wesley Person
Following in the footsteps of his older brother Chuck, who will be mentioned on this list later, Wesley holds the Auburn record for career 3-pointers with 262 and has the best 3-point shooting percentage in school history at .441. He was almost automatic from beyond the arc in compiling 2,066 career points, third on the Tigers’ all-time list. He was twice named to the All-SEC first team and led the league in scoring at 22.2 points per game during his senior season of 1993-94.
Small forward: Chuck Person
Two inches taller than his brother at 6-8, Chuck Person was the driving force behind Auburn’s run to the Elite Elite in 1986. He was part of 3 NCAA Tournament teams. Known as “The Rifleman” because of his accurate shot, he was a 2-time second-team All-American who finished his career as Auburn’s all-time leader in points (2,311), field goals (1017) and field goal attempts (1,899). He’s also third on the school list with 940 rebounds. He went on to enjoy a successful NBA career after being selected fourth overall by the Indiana Pacers in the 1986 draft.
Power forward: Charles Barkley
Before Barkley became that funny guy from the NBA broadcasts and commercials, he was the most ferocious competitor and prolific rebounder the game of basketball has ever known. Despite being undersized at 6-6 and somewhat overweight at 252 pounds (and sometimes more), he was a terror on the glass who somehow managed to get his hands on every loose ball around the rim. He earned the nickname “Round Mound of Rebound” by grabbing 806 in his 3-year Auburn career. He was just as effective on offense, with a career field goal percentage of .626 and 1,183 points in 3 seasons. Barkley was the SEC Player of the Year and a first-team All-American while leading the Tigers to their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 1984 and is to date, the only player in Auburn history to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Center: Johni Broome
Broome played only 2 seasons at Auburn after transferring from Morehead State, but he made the most of his time with the Tigers. He was the only player to rank among the top 10 in the SEC in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage and blocked shots as a junior in leading his team to the conference tournament championship, earning Most Outstanding Player honors along the way. In 2025, he joined Chuck Person 4 decades earlier as the only players in Auburn history to earn All-America recognition in consecutive seasons.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
