In a season full of awards, Bruce Pearl arguably picked up his biggest individual accolade yet.

He was named AP Coach of the Year Friday morning, splitting the award with St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino. Pearl is now the second Auburn coach to ever win the award, joining Cliff Ellis in 1999.

The award comes after Pearl led Auburn to the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament and now a Final Four berth. Auburn also won the Southeastern Conference regular season championship, along with breaking a school record for wins in a season.

Pearl and Pitino finished voting tied with 20 votes each. Louisville’s Pat Kelsey finished with eight votes and Duke’s Jon Scheyer finished with five.

Auburn will start the Final Four Saturday evening, facing Florida at 5:09 p.m. from the Alamodome in San Antonio. The game will be televised on CBS.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m