Ian Borders is in his sixth season with the Auburn men’s basketball program and was promoted to Director of Scouting and Recruiting on Aug. 2, 2023.
He is responsible for cutting and breaking down film of opponents and practices, scouting and facilitating on-campus recruiting and running Bruce Pearl Basketball Camps.
“Ian has done a great job as our video coordinator over the last couple of years,” Pearl said. “The importance of video, in both the scouting and recruiting areas, is vital. Promoting him to Director of Scouting and Recruiting was an opportunity to elevate and recognize his basketball knowledge of evaluating players. He has done a phenomenal job with that for us.”
During the 2021-22 season, Auburn won the Southeastern Conference regular-season title, reached the NCAA Tournament, earned the program’s first-ever No. 1 national ranking and recorded the third-most wins in school history with a 28-6 overall record.
The Tigers finished the season ranked No. 8 in the final Associated Press poll, the highest since capping the 1998-99 campaign at No. 4. They also had two players drafted in the first round of the 2022 NBA Draft in All-Americans Jabari Smith (No. 3) and Walker Kessler (No. 22).
In his first season on The Plains, Auburn advanced to the 2019 Final Four, won the SEC Tournament and set a program record for wins with a 30-10 record.
During Auburn’s historic run to the Final Four, the Tigers became the only team to defeat Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina - the three winningest programs in NCAA history - in consecutive games in NCAA Tournament history.
In 2019-20, the Tigers had another banner year going 25-6 and finishing second in the SEC. Auburn became one of four major programs to record three consecutive 25-win seasons, joining Duke, Kansas and Kentucky.
Before arriving to The Plains, Borders served as video coordinator at Little Rock, under head coach Wes Flanigan, a former Auburn standout and assistant coach, from 2016-18.
Borders started his collegiate coaching career as a graduate assistant at Florida State under head coach Leonard Hamilton from 2015-17. The Seminoles finished second in the Atlantic Coast Conference and ranked as high as No. 7 in the country during his tenure. FSU produced five future NBA players during Borders’ time with the Seminoles.
Prior to his time at FSU, Borders was an assistant coach from 2010-15 at South Oldham High School in Crestwood, Ky. Under the direction of head coach Steve Simpson, the team won the regional championship twice, leading to the first two trips to the state tournament in school history.
Borders earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Louisville in 2007. He and his wife, Sarah, have one daughter, Cecilia, and one son, Lennox.