Ira Bowman is in his sixth season as an assistant coach on Bruce Pearl’s staff at Auburn.
Auburn has been ranked in the Top 11 four out of the last five years since his arrival on The Plains. The Tigers have also gone to a Final Four (2019), put together a consensus Top 5-ranked recruiting class and been ranked No. 1 in the country for the first time ever.
Named one of the Top 5 high major assistant coaches in college basketball by MCA.com, Bowman was integral in the recruitment and development of Jabari Smith (No. 3 draft pick in 2022), Isaac Okoro (No. 5 draft pick in 2020), JT Thor (No. 37 draft pick in 2021) and Sharife Cooper (No. 47 draft pick in 2021). Smith was the 2021-22 squad’s leading scorer (16.9 ppg), a consensus first team All-American, National Freshman of the Year and SEC Freshman of the Year.
Coming to Auburn as a fringe Top 40 player, Okoro became the first one-and-done in program history and is an expected Top 10 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. Okoro became just the sixth player in SEC history to be named to an all-conference team, all-defensive team and all-freshman team in the same season by the league’s coaches.
Bowman and the staff signed a consensus Top 10 recruiting class, highlighted by the third highest-rated recruit in program history in five-star Sharife Cooper, the third McDonald’s All-American to enroll at Auburn.
In his first season on The Plains, the Tigers set a program record for wins (30), 3-pointers (454), steals (369) and blocks (190) en route to an appearance in the Final Four. Auburn earned its way to the first Final Four by way of defeating the three winningest programs in NCAA history - Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina - in consecutive games, becoming the first team ever to do so.
Bowman came to Auburn after spending six seasons at the University of Pennsylvania under head coach Steve Donahue. He was instrumental in the recruitment of team’s top players and in the on-court development of the Quakers’ perimeter players.
During the 2017-18 season, Bowman helped lead Penn to a 24-9 record, an Ivy League title and a return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 11 seasons. It was the Quakers’ first conference crown since 2006-07. He guided seven all-conference players during his tenure at Penn and helped lead the Quakers to 74 wins.
The Newark, N.J. native arrived at Penn after spending four years at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), where he assisted in one of the top turnaround jobs in the country. The year before Bowman arrived at NJIT, the Highlanders were winless (0-29), and in his first season, they went 1-30. After that, the Highlanders went 15-15 overall including a 9-3 Great West Conference mark in 2010-11. His final year, NJIT went 15-17 overall and advanced to the Great West Conference championship game.
Before entering the collegiate coaching profession, Bowman spent four years as director of the Assist by Knight Foundation. In addition, he has experience with several aspects of the NBA including serving as an administrator at the NBA’s FIBA Tournament in Las Vegas as well as participating in the NBA’s Player Development Assistant Coaches Summit in 2007.
Bowman played two years at Penn, the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons, after transferring from Providence College. In his first year with the Quakers, Penn went 22-6 overall and 14-0 in Ivy League play en route to its third straight Ancient Eight title. Bowman was Second Team All-Ivy that season.
As a senior, Bowman was the Ivy League Player of the Year and First-Team All-Philadelphia Big 5 as he led the Quakers to a 17-10 record that included a 12-2 mark in Ivy play. In his two seasons at Penn and two campaigns at Providence, Bowman combined for 918 points, 228 assists and 139 steals.
Following his playing days with the Quakers, Bowman enjoyed a professional playing career that included stints with the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and Atlanta Hawks. He also played overseas in Italy and Australia, as well as the Continental Basketball Association.
Bowman played his high school career at Seton Hall Preparatory School where he was the school’s all-time leading scorer. He scored 1,488 points in his three-year varsity career, including 19.6 per game during his senior season when he led the team to a 31-1 record.
Bowman and his wife, Rayna, have one son, Jeremiah.