Auburn University AD John Cohen couldn't have been happier with the way the Tigers' 2025-26 men's basketball season turned out following an NIT championship win in Steven Pearl's debut campaign in charge.
Cohen gave Steven grace after the sudden transition the program underwent last September with Bruce Pearl's sudden retirement, offering confidence in the coaching staff's ability to get Auburn back to its previous standard.
“I understand that there can be critics in this world, but no matter how you slice it, our basketball team won out, and they won a championship, and they extended their season and they got really valuable experience,” Cohen said to AL.com. “When you consider how many new players we had coming in, the fact that they didn’t get to play with each other a lot, the extension of the season and the opportunity to continue those practices and in-game experience, I think it’s invaluable.
“I feel very good about this coaching staff. They didn’t forget how to evaluate good players. They didn’t forget how to coach defense. They didn’t forget how to coach good offense. But that was a transitional year in many, many ways, both from a roster standpoint and Coach Pearl.”
Steven Pearl saved a lot of face for John Cohen with NIT win
Steven saved the vibes for Cohen, whose tenure as AD has taken a major hit over the last year or so. Hugh Freeze's failures as head football coach were his biggest collective sin, but even Cohen's recent dismissal of Jeff Graba as head gymnastics coach wasn't popular either.
Steven's hiring could've been seen as another JABA disaster, but banding together at the end and giving the season a nice bow on top with a first-time postseason tournament victory gives hope that at least basketball is in good hands.
Alex Golesh is Cohen's hope. If football can return to the Gus Malzahn-era winning ways, Cohen will recover. If Golesh doesn't work out, and Steven struggles to reinvigorate Auburn basketball, Cohen's seat will start getting hot before long.