KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl was honored by his peers as the 2024-25 National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division I All-Southeast District Coach of the Year on Tuesday.
The All-District honors are voted on by NABC-member coaches across NCAA Division I. The 2025 Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year led the Tigers to the league’s regular-season title with a 15-3 mark, 28 wins (16 of those Quad 1) against the nation’s toughest schedule, the program’s second No. 1 ranking for eight-straight weeks in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll, the 2024 Maui Invitational Championship and the No. 1 overall seed in this week’s NCAA Tournament.
All-SEC selections Johni Broome (SEC Player of the Year and SEC First Team) and Chad Baker-Mazara (SEC Third Team) earned a spot on the NABC All-Southeast District First Team, while teammates Chaney Johnson and Tahaad Pettiford (SEC All-Freshman Team) were honored on the Second Team.
It was the first such honor for Baker-Mazara and Pettiford, while Broome’s fourth (NABC Division I All-District Team in 2021, 2022 and 2024) and Johnson’s third (NABC Division II All-District Team in 2022 and 2023).
The NABC introduced a new model for its Division I district alignment this season, with schools arranged by state rather than by conference. The modernized NABC Division I district alignment features 10 geographic regions that each encompass multiple states. Every Division I school in each given state belongs to that state’s corresponding district.
NABC DIVISION I ALL-SOUTHEAST DISTRICT
FIRST TEAM
Chad Baker-Mazara, Auburn
Johni Broome, Auburn
Walter Clayton Jr., Florida
Alex Condon, Florida
Josh Hubbard, Mississippi State
Yaxel Lendeborg, UAB
Sean Pedulla, Mississippi
Jaron Pierre Jr., Jacksonville State
Mark Sears, Alabama
Adou Thiero, Arkansas
SECOND TEAM
Keyshawn Hall, UCF
Chaney Johnson, Auburn
Jacari Lane, North Alabama
Alijah Martin, Florida
Cameron Matthews, Mississippi State
Robert McCray V, Jacksonville
Grant Nelson, Alabama
Tahaad Pettiford, Auburn
Taryn Todd, Arkansas State
Jamir Watkins, Florida State
COACH OF THE YEAR
Bruce Pearl, Auburn