Pearl adds Bowman to staff
AUBURN | Fresh off helping Penn to an Ivy League championship, assistant coach Ira Bowman will join Bruce Pearl's staff at Auburn.
AuburnSports.com's Jay G. Tate first identified Bowman as Auburn's top target on June 30.
“When you’re hiring a staff, it’s all about surrounding yourself with people better than you,” said Pearl in a press release. “Who can help these kids realize their full potential on and off the court? Who do I want to walk into a living room with and say to a parent that these are the men I want to surround your son with?
“Ira Bowman is a former Ivy League Player of the Year, a self-made NBA player, a great father and a true role model. Even though he is from the east, I think he fits the profile of an Auburn man to a T.”
Bowman, a former Penn and NBA player, has spent the past six years as an assistant with the Quakers. Penn won the Ivy League regular season and tournament titles, and made the NCAA Tournament this past season for the first time in 11 years.
Bowman is considered a top-notch recruiter with ties throughout the Northeast. He was instrumental in the recruitment of team’s top players and in the on-court development of the Quakers’ perimeter players.
“I’m excited to be a part of Auburn basketball,” Bowman said. “It has a great future and I’m blessed that Coach Pearl has chosen me to be a part of that. Coming off last season’s SEC Championship, I know the guys coming back have a lot to prove. This is a great, resilient bunch and I’m just fortunate to be a part of it.
“I’m also looking forward to working under Director of Athletics Allen Greene, who is going to spearhead Auburn basketball into the future.”
The Quakers finished 24-9 overall and 12-2 in the conference this past season, losing to top-seeded Kansas 76-60 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Bowman replaces assistant coach Harris Adler, who left Auburn in May to work in his family’s business as a licensed pharmacist.
Before joining the Quakers, Bowman spent four years as an assistant at New Jersey Institute of Technology. He also spent four years as director of the Assist by Knight Foundation.
The Newark, N.J., native played two years at Penn from 1994-96 after transferring from Providence College. He was second-team All-Ivy as a junior and Ivy League Player of the Year and first-team All-Philadelphia Big 5 as a senior. Following his Penn career, Bowman had professional stints with the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and Atlanta Hawks. He also played overseas, in Italy and Australia, as well as in the Continental Basketball Association.
Bowman played his high school career at Seton Hall Preparatory School where he is still the school’s all-time leading scorer. He scored 1,488 points in his 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