John Cooper, who has been Jeff Lebo's top assistant the last five years, will be named head basketball coach at Tennessee State today, an Auburn spokesman confirmed. Fox News first reported the story.

Cooper has been with the Tigers for five years. The 40-year-old was an assistant coach at South Carolina under Eddie Fogler from 1995-2001 and at Oregon from 2002-04 before taking the Auburn job.

He and Lebo were assistants at South Carolina at the same time from 1995-98.

Cooper replaces Cy Alexander, who was fired Feb. 6 after going 67-107 in six seasons at Tennessee State.

UPDATE with quotes from an Auburn press release:

Cooper: "First of all, it is a lifelong dream and a lifelong journey. As I think about it, I am so grateful for one having the opportunity to come to Auburn and having been allowed to grow as a coach and given the opportunity by Jeff. Two, when I informed the team I told them that without them, without the year they had and what they did, I wouldn't have been given this opportunity.

"Friends never say goodbye. Friends say until we meet again, and we leave a lot of friends here. I am really enthusiastic and excited about the opportunity. My goal is to obviously be successful, but also to put a product on the court that Tennessee State University is proud of, and one that is successful both on and off the court. In the future, we want to be able to say that we competed for championships in the OVC and hopefully say that we have won championships."

Lebo: "I am real excited for John to get this first opportunity to be a head basketball coach at Tennessee State. He certainly has been an integral part of our program for the last five years. Tennessee State is getting a class act, and we all will miss him and wish him nothing but the best."