Bruce Pearl received great news this offseason when Georgia Tech transfer Miles Kelly announced his decision to play his final collegiate season in orange and blue.
Formerly with the Yellow Jackets, Kelly was an All-Atlantic Coast Conference honorable mention, making him one of the most sought-after transfers on the market. Kelly was the team’s leading scorer as a junior averaging 13.9 points per game and started in 60 games during his three-year stint in Atlanta.
“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.”
The former consensus four-star prospect is a deadeye shooter from beyond the arc, ranking ninth in three-point field goals made in Georgia Tech history. The sharpshooting two-guard has connected on 35 percent of his deep shots throughout his career and adds a strong presence from the charity stripe hitting 78.6 percent of his foul shots.
"Miles Kelly is as good a shooter, " Pearl said. “I'm not going to put the Bryce Brown tag on him, but he can really shoot the basketball."
Kelly has made quite the impression on his teammates since his arrival on the Plains, drawing some remarkable comparisons to Steph Curry with the way he moves around the court without the ball in his hands.
“Every day in practice, people call him Steph Curry because of the way he moves off the ball," center Johni Broome said at SEC Media Days. "He runs baseline to baseline, he comes off screens, and he constantly moves. He's very hard to guard because when you help a little bit, he slides to the corner, or he comes up or he circles back - he moves all the time. As a post player, having the ball in the post, he's someone you want on the wing because he's going to find a way to get open whenever you're in trouble.”
Paired with returning seniors Denver Jones and Chad Baker-Mazara on the wing, Auburn will have plenty of production from deep range as both Jones and Baker-Mazara shot over 40 percent last season. Jones said adding Kelly has been a significant boost to the backcourt.
"The way he bought into the offense, the way he adapted to it was great," Jones said. "Obviously, with his ability to shoot the ball and the type of offense that we run; it complements his game really well. His shooting ability is really going to help us."
Kelly will get to show off his long-range ability sooner rather than later with the Tigers set to play an exhibition game on Sunday, Oct. 27 against Furman in Greenville, S.C. Tipoff is set for noon CST but will not be televised.
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Logan Fowler is a Senior from Sumiton, Alabama and is majoring in journalism. He joined the Plainsman in Spring 2024.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @loganffowler
