AU Men's Players Transferring

[toddc 13,197]

 

[toddc 13,197]

Former 5-star recruit Yohan Traore to transfer from Auburn

11 minutes ago

Former 5-star prospect Yohan Traore is transferring after one season at Auburn, he posted on social media Tuesday afternoon.

The third-highest rated signee in program history, Traore was formerly signed with LSU last offseason before being released from his letter of intent. He committed to Auburn as the No. 5 center recruit in the nation.

Traore played 9.9 minutes per game as a freshman and averaged 2.1 points. He played double-digit minutes only once against an SEC opponent. When Bruce Pearltrimmed the rotation down before conference play, Traore’s spot was solidified on the scout team.

“I just learned about how to work from guys like Jaylin (Williams) and Johni (Broome),” Traore told Auburn Undercover during the NCAA Tournament. "Every time things got tough this year, I just kept my head up and kept working.”

11COMMENTS

Traore said "that's the plan" earlier this month when asked if he plans to return to Auburn.

He's the first piece of offseason roster movement for the Tigers. Even with Traore's departure, Williams, a senior with the option of exercising a year of COVID-19 eligibility, could return for a fifth year and bring back a reliable starter for Auburn in the frontcourt.

[Tiger720 100]

What happened? He was just on a video promotion of the team getting ready for next season. 

[AUBwins 10,295]

Freaking sucks.  Kid clearly not happy to ride the bench this year after recovering from injury. I guess he could come back but I am in my feelings over this one lol

[TigerPAC 1,033]

WTH?????

[gravejd 3,304]

This is not the one we wanted to enter the portal

[gravejd 3,304]

No surprise here. 

[TigerPAC 1,033]

come on Pearl, work some magic here

[TAYLORKEETON 866]

But why? Just not happy? 

[gabo4au 244]

Clearly wasn't a true 5 star. They start, are a big part of the team, and go to the NBA after one season. Especially if they are big men. He's French, went to high school in AZ and lived at least some time in CA. Probably not a good cultural fit for any school in the SEC, including LSU as French Cajuns are not a cultural fit with people from France. Interesting as to why he came to the SEC in the first place.

 

But good luck to him wherever he lands, I hope he turns it around and does well.

[ellitor 33,903]

We are discussing this in the 2023 transfer portal thread. Bigbird said he will explain what he can of Westry when he can FWIW.

[autan 811]

Disappointing but certainly not surprising.

[W.E.D 11,071]

1 hour ago, gabo4au said:

Clearly wasn't a true 5 star. They start, are a big part of the team, and go to the NBA after one season. Especially if they are big men. He's French, went to high school in AZ and lived at least some time in CA. Probably not a good cultural fit for any school in the SEC, including LSU as French Cajuns are not a cultural fit with people from France. Interesting as to why he came to the SEC in the first place.

 

But good luck to him wherever he lands, I hope he turns it around and does well.

Let's not go too far.  Kessler was a 5* that didn't work our at a top 4 all time basketball school, then came here and went in the 1st round after 1 season

[autan 811]

In fairness to Kessler, he had a couple of outstanding games near the end of season at UNC. Tarheels tried very hard to keep him, but he really loved Bruce, who almost landed him the first time around. Not sure there's a good comparison here but I'm probably wrong and know I'm about to get blasted.😉

[gabo4au 244]

48 minutes ago, W.E.D said:

Let's not go too far.  Kessler was a 5* that didn't work our at a top 4 all time basketball school, then came here and went in the 1st round after 1 season

 

Fair point. Maybe he was a 5- star, not a 5+ star. For whatever reason Yohan had a hard time finding the court on a team that wasn't exactly filled with top talent. Will it be hard to find someone equal to him? I don't know, only time will tell. One thing for sure, we have to play with the hand we're dealt, so Bruce will be moving on.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,129]

I think Traore’s is pretty easy to explain (losing out on Julian Phillips hurts even more now), but there’s at least 8 dudes I would’ve gave the boot too before Chance. What a disastrous post-Miami stretch for us lol (laughing through the pain) 

[yngwie1995 2,425]

1 hour ago, autan said:

In fairness to Kessler, he had a couple of outstanding games near the end of season at UNC. Tarheels tried very hard to keep him, but he really loved Bruce, who almost landed him the first time around. Not sure there's a good comparison here but I'm probably wrong and know I'm about to get blasted.😉

It was also close to home for Kessler.

[yngwie1995 2,425]

3 hours ago, gabo4au said:

Clearly wasn't a true 5 star. They start, are a big part of the team, and go to the NBA after one season. Especially if they are big men. He's French, went to high school in AZ and lived at least some time in CA. Probably not a good cultural fit for any school in the SEC, including LSU as French Cajuns are not a cultural fit with people from France. Interesting as to why he came to the SEC in the first place.

 

But good luck to him wherever he lands, I hope he turns it around and does well.

Well, I'm glad Jeffrey M'ba seems happy here. We need him, and I expect he plays a lot this year. 

[fishepa 2,046]

Really disappointed Westry is gone. I was looking forward to watching him next year. Doesn’t make any sense. 

[bigbird 60,942]

[Son of A Tiger 649]

1 hour ago, fishepa said:

Really disappointed Westry is gone. I was looking forward to watching him next year. Doesn’t make any sense. 

That was sure a surprise to me.

[ellitor 33,903]

7 hours ago, W.E.D said:

Let's not go too far.  Kessler was a 5* that didn't work our at a top 4 all time basketball school, then came here and went in the 1st round after 1 season

And in a redraft based on what the NBA knows now of him, would be a top 5 overall pick.

[ellitor 33,903]

45 minutes ago, Son of A Tiger said:

That was sure a surprise to me.

Per Hoke it surprised the staff too. He and his family were expected to have 1 more metting with our staff before making a final decision. That meeting never happened apparently.

[Mikey 16,781]

What we are losing in these two is a lot of assumed potential and no actual production. If they don't want to be at Auburn they can move along and AU will too.

[GwillMac6 20,849]

I didn’t see anything on the court to warrant being upset with westry and especially yohan who’s a major project leaving. Westry has some Justin Powell to him in that westry his last 3 years of high school he went to 3 different schools and is now transferring after 1 year of even less production than Powell. Westry was also a 20 year old freshman who couldn’t even look good Vs the mid majors we played. The hurt thing is such a cop out. If he looked better when he got on the court he wouldn’t have been shut down.  Both him and yohan were just flat out liabilities when they played.

Edited March 29, 2023 by GwillMac6