Ian Borders is in his eighth season with the Auburn men’s basketball program and is in his first season as an assistant coach. Prior to being promoted to a coaching position in the summer of 2025, Borders served as Director of Scouting and Recruiting for seven seasons. 
 
In his previous role as Director of Scouting and Recruiting, Borders was responsible for cutting and breaking down film of opponents and practices, scouting and facilitating on-campus recruiting and running Bruce Pearl Basketball Camps.
 
During his tenure at Auburn, the program has enjoyed historic heights as the Tigers have won four Southeastern Conference Titles, made five NCAA Tournament appearances and made trips to the Final Four in 2019 and last year in 2025. 
 
Last season, the Tigers won a school-record 32 games, spent eight weeks at No. 1 in the country, won the SEC Regular Season Championship and made the program’s second Final Four appearance in the last six NCAA Tournaments. 
 
Borders was a part of another banner year as the Tigers cut down the nets as 2024 SEC Tournament champions and compiled a 27-8 overall record, which was the fourth-most wins in program history – the third championship squad he has been a part of since joining the program.
 
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 2018-23.
 
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, Kentucky. 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 in English from the University of Louisville in 2007 and has two degrees from Western Kentucky (bachelor’s in English and Allied Languages and a master’s degree in educational technology) and a master’s degree in Sports Management from Florida State. 
 
He and his wife, Sarah, have one daughter, Cecilia, and one son, Lennox.