It's been an offseason of change for Auburn basketball, but the long summer months of training have finally given way to fall and the official start of practice.
In his press conference prior to the first practice, new head coach Bruce Pearl said his team was excited to return to the court while lamenting an overall lack of depth on the roster.
That said, the steadily improving health of sophomore center Matthew Atewe has been a good sign for Pearl as official practices begin.
"He's not 100 percent, but we hope to get him there," Pearl said. "He's in practice now."
Pearl said depth is a significant issue in the frontcourt, so it's likely Atewe will be joined by junior college transfer Cinmeon Bowers at center.
"Right now Cinmeon Bowers and Matt Atewe are going to play the same position," Pearl said. "You'd like to think that you could play them together some, and we might against some opponents, but we can't for long because of foul trouble and depth."
Additionally, Pearl said he expects to use four-guard lineups at times to combat the lack of frontcourt depth. In those situations, senior guard Malcolm Canada could see time at the four.
Change is also expected at the point guard position, where returning starter Tahj Shamsid-Deen is expected to move to the shooting guard position, according to Pearl.
"I'm going to try to play Tahj off the ball for most of this year," Pearl said. "We'll be undersized when he's playing the two, but he's better on the wing right now. And Malcolm and KC are better with the ball in their hands. I'll put the ball in Tahj's hands to score, but he's not going to bring the ball up the floor a lot this year."
Senior transfer KC Ross-Miller and Canada are currently in competition to start at point guard, but freshman preferred walk-on Patrick Keim is also in competition at the position.
Canada said it's been an offseason of improvement for him after playing limited minutes last season.
"My teammates came to me, KT (Harrell) mainly, and told me that I am better than I have been playing," Canada said. "We've just been working hard in the offseason."
Overall, Pearl said he was pleased with the position the team is in after the offseason changes.
Leading returning scorer KT Harrell echoed his head coach, saying the team is in a much better place now than it had been.
"I think we've gotten better," Harrell said. "The chemistry is a lot better than I'm pretty sure we thought it was going to be. We're excited about this year and I think we're going to do big things."
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