Pearl unsure if Auburn basketball will use final scholarship for next season

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Bruce Pearl unsure if Auburn basketball will use final scholarship for next season

Updated: May. 23, 2022, 5:38 p.m. | Published: May. 23, 2022, 12:03 p.m.

Bruce Pearl discusses Auburn's offseason roster plans

 

 

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

Fresh off a weeklong trip to Israel, Bruce Pearl is feeling a bit biblical, at least when it comes to the makeup of Auburn’s basketball roster for next season.

 

As of Monday, when Pearl met with reporters ahead of his annual Fore the Children Golf Classic in Alexander City, Auburn is expected to have 12 of its 13 available scholarships filled for next season following a prompt offseason roster reload. The Tigers lost All-Americans Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler, as well as Devan Cambridge to the transfer portal, while adding Morehead State transfer Johni Broome and a trio of 2022 signees in Yohan Traore, Chance Westry and Tre Donaldson. Allen Flanigan and Dylan Cardwell also declared early for the NBA Draft, but the expectation seems to be that both will be back with the team by next week’s draft withdrawal deadline.

 

“I have that scholarship available to us if we don’t sign another player in this recruiting period, and I don’t know whether we will or not,” Pearl said. “…I like our roster. I think I’ve got — I kind of feel a little bit like Noah. Since I just came back from Israel, let’s just go with Noah as a comparison: I’ve got two of everything. I’ve got at least two of every position and a little bit more depth at guard.”

Heading into his ninth season at the helm for Auburn, Pearl seems satisfied with where his roster sits at this juncture of the offseason. Reloading after losing the best frontcourt in college basketball and two first-round picks — including the potential No. 1 overall selection in next month’s NBA Draft — in Smith and Kessler, is no easy task, but Pearl has been economical in his approach to retooling the Tigers’ roster.

 

Auburn already had Westry, a versatile four-star wing who can play three positions — point guard, shooting guard and small forward — and Donaldson, a three-star combo guard who will primarily run point at Auburn, when the duo signed during November’s signing period. After Auburn’s season ended in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, and it became evident that the team would lose both Smith and Kessler, Pearl wasted little time in seeking out additions to the frontcourt.

Auburn added Traore, a five-star combo forward and top-25 player in the 2022 class, after the 6-foot-10 big man decommitted from LSU in the wake of Will Wade’s firing in March. His commitment came on the last day of March. Then, on the final day of April, the Tigers added Broome — the reigning OVC Defensive Player of the Year — from the transfer portal. Broome signed with Auburn later that day and officially withdrew his name from the NBA Draft two weeks later.

“Our frontline, we have five in the frontline,” Pearl said. “We lost two, we brought in two. Obviously, a great challenge when you lose the best player and the No. 1 pick in the draft and a first rounder in Walker Kessler — you lose the best frontline in college basketball. But to be able to replace those guys with Yohan Traore and Johni Broome, two really good young prospects. Pretty required, it was required.”

 

After rapid roster rebuild, Pearl intrigued by Auburn's frontcourt versatility

The four and the five could be interchangeable in Auburn's system next season after the additions of Yohan Traore and Johni Broome, along with the return of Jaylin Williams.

 

 

Auburn also tried to land five-star forward Julian Phillips after he was released from his letter of intent by LSU, but Phillips chose to sign with Tennessee instead. That was the last major prospect on the board for Auburn, which will continue to assess its available options with regards to the final roster spot. Whether the Tigers choose to use that scholarship will depend in part on whether Flanigan withdraws from the NBA Draft in the next week.

 

 

If he returns, as many anticipate, Auburn could add one last piece or it could leave the scholarship open. Should the Tigers not sign another player, that scholarship could eventually go to a walk-on, with Lior Berman the most likely candidate. The other option is to leave that roster spot open and take the additional scholarship reduction required by the program’s NCAA penalty handed down last December. Part of the penalty, stemming from the Chuck Person scandal, requires Auburn to reduce its scholarships by two over the course of its four-year probation period; the Tigers already took away one of those scholarship spots last season, leaving one more to be reduced over the next three seasons.

Though it seems Flanigan is likely to return, should he choose to stay in the draft, Auburn will almost assuredly add another piece this offseason. That would come after the June 1 deadline for players to withdraw from the draft while retaining their college eligibility. While the pool of available players in the portal will become more finite at that point, Pearl acknowledged the need to take a measured approach to adding another player, given the makeup of Auburn’s roster, with several key returning pieces.

It’s a different situation than a year ago, when Auburn saw Sharife Cooper and JT Thor enter the draft, while Justin Powell, Jamal Johnson and Javon Frankin all transferred out of the program, and the Tigers signed just one freshman — Smith. That allowed Auburn to bring in four transfers in Kessler, K.D. Johnson, Wendell Green Jr. and Zep Jasper without “really recruiting over anybody’s heads.”

“It’s got to be the right player, the right fit,” Pearl said. “…I think this year, with some guys being upperclassmen — Wendell Green, in his third year now, we’re not going bring in a transfer on top of him. K.D. Johnson, in his third year of college, you’re going to bring in a transfer on top of him? Jaylin Williams, in his fourth year now, do you bring in a transfer on top of him? We brought some young guys to compete with them. We feel like that was the fairest way of rebuilding our roster.

“I’m not a ‘bring in the 13 best guys we can find and let the best man win’ guy. That’s never been how I’ve been. There are other coaches in our league who are that way. It doesn’t make them wrong. I’ve just never done it that way.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

Edited May 24, 2022 by aubiefifty

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,156]

Have they looked at that Jamal Johnson guy from UAB?

[HAPvsOA 448]

3 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Have they looked at that Jamal Johnson guy from UAB?

I have to admit that Justin Powell & Desi Sills are other names that I see popping up now and then and wonder how much they could've helped last year & this year. I get some of the animosity against Powell, but it also sounds like some of that has been his Dad if those rumors are true. So I also feel for him a bit. He was killer (shooting, passing, hustle plays, etc.) in some of his first games for us, so I was surprised he didn't have a good year last year. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,156]

49 minutes ago, HAPvsOA said:

I have to admit that Justin Powell & Desi Sills are other names that I see popping up now and then and wonder how much they could've helped last year & this year. I get some of the animosity against Powell, but it also sounds like some of that has been his Dad if those rumors are true. So I also feel for him a bit. He was killer (shooting, passing, hustle plays, etc.) in some of his first games for us, so I was surprised he didn't have a good year last year. 

I unironically think any of those type of guys would’ve been fine for us. We literally just need someone who could hit wide open shots. Generated a ton of those, no one to shoot them 

Powell couldn’t get in much of a rhythm and just seemingly didn’t fit what Tennessee wanted (plus he wasn’t great on D). And I don’t know how the Sills kid did, but I think he would’ve been substantially better at merely shooting than our current options. 
 

that Grady kid at UK. THAT would’ve been the perfect player for Auburn last season. I would’ve traded Flan, DC, maybe a 2023 scholarship for that guy last year.