Auburn men’s basketball officially tipped off practice for the 2024 season, with head coach Bruce Pearl meeting with the local media to share his thoughts on the upcoming season.
As the college basketball landscape continues to change with the rise of the transfer portal, Pearl has welcomed the new reality, leveraging the portal to reshape his roster by bringing in a talented crop of transfers to complement his returning core.
“The combination of NIL and the transfer portal in the power five conferences, you're looking at almost four to five guys transferring per year per team,” Pearl said. “We've averaged two over the last five years or so.”
Pearl is leaning into the portal to build a more versatile and experienced roster. One of the key roster additions is Miles Kelly, who transferred to Auburn from Georgia Tech where he played in 95 career games with 60 starts and was the Yellow Jackets’ leading scorer, averaging 13.9 points per game last season.
“Miles was arguably Georgia Tech’s best player last year. He played a ton of minutes and grew and developed in that program,” Pearl said. “He’s going to affect the game with his length, defensively. He’s going to affect the game by, hopefully, getting downhill more and scoring at the rim.”
In addition to Kelly, the Tigers have added Ja’Heim Hudson from SMU and JP Pegues from Furman. With an influx of new talent and offseason improvement from returners, Pearl is looking to potentially change up some rotations from last season, including shifting returning players like Denver Jones and Johni Broome into new positions.
“Denver Jones is going to play one and two. He didn't play any point guard last year, with the exception of about a week and a half,” Pearl said. “Johni Broome is going to play four and five. He played 12 minutes of four last year when Jaylin Williams was hurt.”
Pearl is also considering the role of new freshman on the roster, including McDonald's All-American Tahaad Pettiford who is capable of contributing to the Tigers as a combination guard.
“Tahaad Pettiford was a guy that was absolutely going to come in, and I was only going to play him off the ball and through his own personal development, he looks like he can also play point and handle the load of learning three positions,” Pearl said. “So you give some of those dynamics, along with bringing in five new guys, and I'm going to learn a lot more about my team in the next three or four weeks.”
With the added experience from transfers and depth from newcomers, Auburn is set to take on a challenging non-conference schedule that includes matchups against the likes of Houston, Duke and Purdue.
"We're just trying to act like we belong," Pearl said of the challenging slate. “I don't know if we can recruit like a top 10 program. I don't know if we can finish like a top 10 program, but I can schedule like one, and that’s what we’ve done.”
As Auburn gears up for its season, it heads into uncharted territory with potential position changes and one of the toughest schedules in the country.
“Going into this, this first day of practice, I know less about this team than many of the teams that I've coached,” Pearl said.
There may be some unknowns, but a fresh mix of experienced transfers and promising freshmen give the roster the versatility to adapt and grow as the season progresses.
Looking ahead, the Tigers will start their season on Friday, Nov. 1 with an exhibition game against Florida Atlantic University. Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. CST.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
Grace Heim is a senior from Enterprise, Alabama, majoring in Political Science. She started with The Plainsman in January of 2023.
You can follow her on X (Twitter) at @graceeheim
