Auburn men's basketball coach Tony Barbee spoke briefly on Monday, June 24, about the upcoming 2013-14 season for the Tigers during the SEC men's basketball teleconference.
"I'm excited about the year upcoming," Barbee said. "I think we've upgraded our roster in a number of ways."
One of the upgrades Auburn made was bringing in junior college point guard Malcolm Canada, who signed with Auburn last week.
Canada was a late addition after transfer point guard Jerome Seagears decided to return to Rutgers after spending less than one month on campus.
"We were fortunate to get Malcolm so late in the process," Barbee said. "You can't compete at the highest level with just one point guard. Malcolm is a bigger point guard with great feet, great hands and he's a winner. I think we've upgraded that position significantly with Tahj and Malcolm."
Canada will be competing for playing time next season with fellow point guard, freshman Tahj Shamsid-Deen.
Auburn lost five seniors from last year's team, including Frankie Sullivan who averaged a team high 12.6 points per game.
"Every year, it's a transition for all programs," Barbee said about personnel turnover. "When you're taking over a program like I did a few years ago you take some steps forward and some steps back. We try to recruit guys who are about winning."
With players like Sullivan, Josh Wallace and Rob Chubb no longer on the team, Auburn will have to look to incoming players to be the new playmakers.
All the new players are expected to be enrolled in the second summer session to begin building chemistry with the team.
"They'll all be enrolled here as we start the second summer session," Barbee said. "We're still waiting on some paperwork for the (international players)."
Barbee also said the team has plans to travel to the Bahamas.
"They're playing some federation teams in the Bahamas later this summer," Barbee said. "It's a great time to develop some chemistry and work on some different things to give us a head start going into next season."
The schedule has not been set, and will be announced at a later date.
"Right now we don't have a schedule of the games of who exactly we're playing," Barbee said. "But we've been in touch with the federation down there and they set up the schedule for all the teams."
Strength of schedule, and nonconference scheduling specifically, has been a big topic in SEC basketball since the spring coaches meeting. With the conference trying to build up its RPI rating, schedules will now have to be turned into the league office for approval.
This season, Auburn's nonconference schedule will be Iowa State in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, Illinois in Atlanta, Boston College and a home-and-home matchup with Clemson.
Auburn will host Clemson this season at Auburn Arena and the play at Clemson next season.
"The strength of our schedule is pretty solid," Barbee said. "Every year, we've upgraded our schedule. This year will be no different."
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