It was a long offseason for Bruce Pearl and Auburn men’s basketball.
The Tigers had another impressive season, winning the SEC Tournament and finishing the season with a 27-8 record.
But a first-round loss to Yale in the NCAA Tournament ended the campaign on a sour note, and the Tigers are looking to maintain their consistent level of success.
When asked about what went into making that schedule, he emphasized that as the team consistently finishes ranked in the top 10, he wanted to “act like” a top 10 program.
“One of the ways you can act like one is to try to schedule there,” Pearl said during his pre-practice news conference Wednesday. “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 because I can control that.”
The schedule features games against top teams such as Houston, Duke, Purdue, Iowa State and others. It’ll give the team plenty of tests early in the season, along with giving the team more Quad 1 opportunities, another reason behind the scheduling, according to Pearl.
With those early tests, the next month will be critical for a team Pearl said he knows less about than many of the teams he has coached.
That statement came despite Auburn only adding two freshmen and three players through the transfer portal. Part of that uncertainty came due to Pearl saying that multiple returning players will play new positions this season.
“For example, Denver Jones is going to play one and two. He didn’t play any point guard last year,” Pearl said. “Johni Broome is going to play four and five. He played 12 minutes of four last year when Jaylen Williams was hurt and we played him that way at Georgia.”
Pearl also mentioned that true freshman Tahaad Pettiford could also play a role at point guard, despite the initial plan for him being to play primarily off the ball.
“I think it definitely helps as far as the depth is concerned,” Pearl said of the options at point guard. “As far as the completion, those guys are all so competitive that I don’t necessarily think that it’s helping them all show up every day to practice because those three guys are going to show up every day.”
The third player in the mix there is Furman transfer JP Pegues. Pegues was Auburn’s highest-ranked addition out of the portal, averaging 18.4 points per game last season.
He and Georgia Tech transfer Miles Kelly bring an influx of scoring to Auburn’s backcourt. Both players are also consistent shooters, something Auburn was lacking at times last season.
“Miles, he was arguably Georgia Tech’s best player last year,” Pearl said. “He obviously is demonstrated to be a great three-point shooter with great range.”
While Pearl still may not yet know what exactly this team is and can be, it still has many of the pieces that led the team to a conference tournament championship last season.
Pearl was confident in the players he did add but says time will tell how it all comes together.
“How much better we are with those guys out there, I probably won’t know until Florida Atlantic on Nov. 1,” Pearl said.
Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at prauterkus@al.com
