UNA athletics enjoyed something not experienced in decades during March Madness 2025. The Lions men’s basketball team caught fire at the end of the season, winning the conference’s regular season title and making a run in the Atlantic Sun (ASUN) conference tournament that resulted in raucous sell-out crowds and national and regional media attention. UNA completed an undefeated regular season home schedule with a win over Queens on Senior Night on February 26 and came within one game of advancing to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, losing to co-ASUN champs Lipscomb on March 9 in Nashville, Tennessee.
The engineer behind the Lions’ success is head coach Tony Pujol. This past season, Pujol was named a finalist for the prestigious 2024-25 Hugh Durham award, presented annually to the top mid-major head coach.
Reflecting on his team’s success, Pujol says there is a hunger in the Shoals area and beyond to see quality basketball. “It starts with the players on the floor, making it enjoyable to watch. We were the only team in the league which was undefeated at home. It was incredible to see the reaction after beating Queens,” Pujol told Talegate.
The Lions’ magical run may have fallen just short of the NCAA tournament, but National Invitational Tournament (NIT) officials extended a postseason bid. And though UNA lost to Bradley in the first round of the NIT, the Lions ended their 2024-25 season with a 24-11 record, the most single season wins since 2008. Players like Donte Bacchus, Jacari Lane (Texas A&M transfer), Cornelius Williams, Taye Fields, Will Soucie, Daniel Ortiz, Canin Jefferson and others formed the historic nucleus.
A Hoboken, N.J., native, Pujol began his coaching career in 1992, becoming the head boys’ basketball coach at La Progresiva Presbyterian high school in Miami, Florida. In 1995, he became the head coach at Northwest Christian Academy in Miami, where he stayed for 13 seasons and posted a 250-46 record, winning state titles in 1999, 2003 and 2004.
Pujol admits his time as a high school coach prepared him for what was ahead. “When you’re a high school coach you have to learn everything,” Pujol said. “I had to get a CDL license to be the bus driver. In my first coaching job, we didn’t have a basketball gym. We had to go to the local boys and girls club. Because of this, I had to transport my team to practice every day and to the games.”
After coaching at Appalachian State, Pujol joined Anthony Grant’s staff at VCU from 2006 to 2009. He then followed Grant to Alabama, where he stayed until 2014. In 2016, Pujol joined the staff at the University of Wyoming, and on April 2, 2018, he was named the seventh head coach in UNA history.
Pujol’s success is fueled by the example set by his parents, Celia and Joaquin, Cuban immigrants who fled the country as Fidel Castro began his rise to power. Joaquin worked in the produce department at a grocery store, and Celia’s first job entailed making 65 cents per hour sewing.
He says parents are his heroes.
“I had a front row seat to see them do their jobs,” Pujol explained. “The biggest lesson that I learned from my parents was they showed us it can be done. My parents sacrificed for my brother Alex and I and for my future family.”
Pujol believes that sacrifice makes him appreciate the sacrifice and commitment that former head coaches Bill L. Jones and Gary Elliott made for UNA basketball.
“These are the men that I stand on the shoulders of,” Pujol says. “They laid the foundation for this program.” TG
Cover photo courtesy Joseph Romans/UNA Athletics
Words by Brett Beaird
