(David Gray/Auburn Tigers)
AUBURN — Compared to the vast majority of college basketball teams, Auburn is bringing back a ton of experience and production.
But, when the Tigers officially opened preseason practices Wednesday afternoon, Bruce Pearl looked out onto the court and saw a lot of unknowns.
“I know less about this team than many of the teams that I’ve coached,” Pearl said before practice inside Neville Arena on Wednesday. “And I’ve only brought in two freshmen and, really, three transfers.”
The reason behind all that unfamiliarity isn’t a bad one. In fact, it could go a long way in Auburn’s quest to compete for championships with what is shaping up to be one of its best rosters in recent memory.
Last season, Auburn basically stuck to a two-deep across the board. Aden Holloway and Tre Donaldson were the point guards. Denver Jones and K.D. Johnson were the shooting guards. Chad Baker-Mazara and Chris Moore were the small forwards, with some Lior Berman mixed in there. Jaylin Williams and Chaney Johnson were the power forwards. Johni Broome and Dylan Cardwell were the centers.
There were moments when Auburn played guys outside of those primary positions, but they were few and far between. For almost every minute of Auburn’s 27-win, SEC Tournament title campaign, you knew exactly where everyone was going to line up for the Tigers when they took the floor.
That won’t be the case this season.
“I have several guys returning that will be playing different positions,” Pearl said.
Pearl has talked about several of those possibilities throughout the offseason. Even though Auburn added Furman transfer JP Pegues to replace what it lost with Hollway and Donaldson’s outgoing transfers, Jones is going to add point guard responsibilities to his work as the returning starter at shooting guard.
There’s also the outside chance that Broome — an All-American center last season — could start at the power forward spot formerly manned by Williams. It all depends on how the Tigers want to run their frontcourt, which includes Cardwell, Chaney Johnson, Moore and SMU transfer Ja’Heim “Turtle” Hudson.
“It would be safe to say right now that, based on what I’ve seen this summer and this fall, that Johni will start at 4 or 5,” Pearl said. “… Now, whether or not Dylan starts at 5 and Johni starts at 4, or Chaney starts at 4 and Johni starts at 5, that’s all going to be taking place this month. And it could change during the course of the year, too, because of matchups and things like that.
“They’re all gonna play. They know they’re all gonna play.”
And there’s a new multi-positional threat to add to the mix: 5-star freshman Tahaad Pettiford. Pearl originally planned on having Pettiford play exclusively off-ball — like Baker-Mazara, Georgia Tech transfer Miles Kelly and fellow first-year signee Jahki Howard.
Now, the 6-foot-1 Pettiford is going to factor into the point guard situation.
“For his own personal development, he looks he can also play point and handle the load of playing three positions — because the 2 and the 3 are identical positions, one’s just on one side of the floor and one’s on the other side of the floor — and the enormous responsibility of the 1, where you need to know every position,” Pearl said. “And he’s demonstrated to me that he can handle rotations at point guard.
“So you get some of those dynamics, along with bringing in five new guys, and I’m going to learn a lot more about my team the next four or five weeks.”
For a team with a lot of old, Auburn will work through plenty of new this preseason. But the Tigers hope that added versatility will both make them even more matchup-proof and shore up the weaknesses from last season’s squad.
In honor of the first day of men’s basketball practices on the Plains — which was also a Pro Day event that welcomed representatives from 23 different NBA franchises — here is our first preseason edition of The Stretch 4.
SG/SF Miles Kelly (David Gray/Auburn Tigers)
