Tag: zep jasper

Where does Auburn Basketball land in 247Sports’ preseason top 25 rankings?

What is the preseason outlook for the reigning SEC Champions according to 247Sports?

The Auburn Tigers are four weeks away from opening the season at Neville Arena, which means it is time to welcome all preseason assessments from the major College Basketball news outlets.

The folks at 247Sports are one of the first to reveal their preseason outlooks and have included Auburn in their preseason top 25 rankings. To begin the season, 247Sports has given Auburn a No. 17 ranking.

Led by the nation’s No. 20 recruiting class for the 2022 cycle, Kevin Flaherty and Isaac Trotter of 247Sports believe that Auburn has the roster to be competitive again in the SEC.

The Tigers’ guard play needs to step up from a year ago if Auburn is going to make a run at the SEC title, but K.D. Johnson showed those kinds of flashes. Yohan Traore and Johni Broome won’t be last year’s twin towers of first-rounders Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler, but they should be pretty good.

Despite losing first-rounders in Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler, Auburn has  plenty of talent returning such as [autotag]Wendell Green[/autotag], [autotag]K.D. Johnson[/autotag], [autotag]Zep Jasper[/autotag], and [autotag]Dylan Cardwell[/autotag]. The Tigers also added a talented forward from the transfer portal, [autotag]Johnni Broome[/autotag].

Auburn is one of five teams to be listed in 247Sports’ top 25 preseason rankings, joining Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Alabama to receive a mention.

The 2022-23 season begins Monday, Nov. 7, as Auburn hosts George Mason at Neville Arena.

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Best photos from Auburn basketballs first practice

K.D. Johnson is still as entertaining as ever.

Auburn basketball had its first practice of the season on Monday and [autotag]Bruce Pearl[/autotag] is once again excited about his team.

Despite losing Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler to the NBA, it is easy to see why. The Tigers return experienced guards in [autotag]K.D. Johnson[/autotag], [autotag]Wendell Green Jr.[/autotag], and [autotag]Zep Jasper[/autotag].

Smith and Zessler will be hard to replace but adding the tandem of transfer [autotag]Johni Broome[/autotag] and five-star [autotag]Yohan Traore[/autotag] is an excellent way to fill their roles. [autotag]Dylan Cardwell[/autotag] is also a year older and ready for a bigger role off the bench.

[autotag]Jaylin Williams[/autotag] has also gained more experience and is ready to take on a bigger role after taking a step back to let Smith lead the offense. While the team has a long way to go, here is a look at the best photos from their first practice of the season, featuring the always entertaining Johnson.

Bruce Pearl still has questions about his team, which is a good thing

Auburn Basketball enjoyed a successful trip to Israel, where they earned two wins. Now, Bruce Pearl has important decisions about personnel to make.

Auburn Basketball completed their Israeli Tour on Monday when they faced the Israel National Team, their toughest competition of the slate.

The Tigers played well defensively, forcing 17 turnovers and recording 46 total rebounds, but the Israeli National Team, led by Deni Avdija of the Washington Wizards, were too much to handle. Team Israel shot 9 percent better from the field than Auburn to earn the 95-86 win.

Auburn head coach [autotag]Bruce Pearl[/autotag] said in a release that Team Israel had a great defensive strategy in the game.

“What (Israel ran) is really hard to guard. We’re built to guard it, but they have great counters to everything that we tried to do,” Pearl said following the game. “It’s an outstanding coach, an outstanding system of play, really good players. They disrupted us. I’m glad we gave them a run. I’m glad that was a good contest for them. They got exposed in some ways, and I know we did as well.”

Now that the tour is over, Pearl has decisions to make about his players, and how many minutes they spend on the floor.

Auburn played well as a team in Israel, which included stellar defensive play and outstanding freshmen production. Pearl has an issue, but it is the best issue that any coach can have.

“The biggest thing is that we’ve got 12 good basketball players, maybe even 13. We’re going to put a good point guard out there. I can’t tell you whether it’s going to be [autotag]Wendell Green[/autotag], [autotag]Chance Westry[/autotag], [autotag]Tre Donaldson[/autotag] or [autotag]Zep Jasper[/autotag],” Pearl said. “We’re going to put a good 2 guard out there. I can list you four or five guys. I don’t know who is going to start at the 3 or the 4 or the 5 because they all had their moments out there.”

So, how will Pearl decide who the best five will be at any given moment? He says that he will take every second that he has until the team’s first official game to sort that out. But, the players will also have to keep working hard to earn their roles.

“We’re going to go back for the next two months and we’re going to compete, and the guys that want to be out there are the guys that are going to play the most productively,” Pearl said. “We keep things called a plus-minus chart. How did we play when you were on the floor? If we were better when you were on the floor, then you are going to be on the floor. If we didn’t play better when you were on the floor, I’m going to play somebody else.”

Auburn will play a preseason exhibition against Alabama-Huntsville on Wednesday, November 2 at Neville Arena to kick off the season. The Tigers’ first official game will take place at Neville Arena on Monday, November 7 against George Mason.

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Bruce Pearl pleased with athleticism in win over Israel All-Star Select

Auburn forced 30 turnovers and pulled down 45 rebounds in Sunday’s win over the Israel All-Star Select team.

After facing Israel’s top players under the age of 20 last Tuesday, Auburn took on a bigger challenge Sunday by taking on the Israel All-Star Select squad, a team made up of athletes aged 20-34.

The gap in age did not slow down Auburn’s attack, as they grabbed another huge win, defeating Israel’s all-star bunch 107-71 in Tel Aviv. The Tigers were paced by freshman Yohan Traore, who scored 20 points in his second straight contest.

What really stood out for Auburn was their defensive efforts. Auburn pulled down 45 rebounds as a team and forced 30 turnovers. Head coach [autotag]Bruce Pearl[/autotag] was pleased with his team’s athleticism.

“Our defense was good. We had guys like [autotag]Zep Jasper[/autotag], [autotag]Tre Donaldson[/autotag], [autotag]Chris Moore[/autotag], KD (Johnson), Yo (Traore), and Dylan (Cardwell). Those guys really picked us up defensively and made plays with their athleticism, effort and energy,” Pearl said after the game in a release. “It was really good, and that’s what you’ve got to do right now because we don’t have a lot of our offensive package in. We know that if we can use our athleticism to make Israel try to go faster by pressing up on them, it’s the right way to play.”

Pearl also says that freshmen Donaldson, Chance Westry and Traore have caught on early to Auburn’s style of play thanks in part to the veterans on the team. Pearl says that veteran experience will be needed when they face the Israeli National Team on Monday.

“Tomorrow night, we’re going to play the Israeli National Team, and that team is going to be 30-40 points better than the team we just played tonight. It will be a great challenge for us physically,” Pearl said. “They’re going to run great stuff, they’ll have a scouting report on us because they will have seen us play twice. We pretty much don’t have anything else in right now, so we’ve got to kind of go with what we’ve got.”

Auburn’s third and final game of the Israel tour will tip off at noon CT on Monday and can be seen nationally on the SEC Network.

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How to watch Auburn basketball in Israel

Here is everything you need to know about Auburn’s trip to Israel.

Auburn fans will be getting an early glimpse of the Tigers next week. The Tigers are traveling to Israel for three games as part of the Birthright of College Basketball tour.

The trip will be the first look at a roster that has undergone massive turnover. Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler are off to the NBA. [autotag]Bruce Pearl[/autotag] and his staff reloaded in the front court with [autotag]Yohan Traore[/autotag] and [autotag]Johni Broome[/autotag].

[autotag]Wendell Green Jr.[/autotag], [autotag]Zep Jasper[/autotag], and [autotag]K.D. Johnson[/autotag] are all back in the backcourt but could be filling new roles and some additions will add some important depth.

The Tigers will have a talented but new roster as they seek to defend their regular-season SEC title and the tour is a great chance for them to start to gel on the court. Here is everything you need to know about the games.

What is Auburn basketball’s key strength and weakness heading into 2022?

247sports recently broke down each SEC program’s strengths and weaknesses heading into the 2022-23 season. What are Auburn’s areas of concern?

The month of July is referred to as “talking season”, with most of the talking being about the College Football season that is set to begin in less than two months.

However, with basketball continuing to grow in the Southeastern Conference, the season can be broadened to the hardwood.

Auburn Basketball had one of the most successful seasons in history during the 2021-22 athletic year and is looking to build by winning a potential second-straight SEC regular-season title and make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

What will help [autotag]Bruce Pearl[/autotag]’s squad reach their goal of winning the program’s first national championship? What will stand in their way? 247sports’ Issac Trotter has taken the time to dissect each SEC program’s strengths and weaknesses in great detail, which included an in-depth look at the Auburn Tigers.

The Tigers will receive a boost in production thanks to an incoming freshman as well as an important transfer this season, but what will be the major area of concern for Auburn? Here’s what Trotter said about the reigning SEC regular-season champions:

Auburn will take trip to Seattle to return home-and-home with Washington in 2022

Auburn will face Washington in 2022 as part of the backend of a home-and-home series.

On Friday, Jon Rothstein of CollegeHoopsToday reported that Auburn will make the trek to Seattle to return the back end of a home-and-home with Washington. The last time the two met was in 2018 when the Tigers hosted the Huskies. Auburn won decisively by a score of 88-66. Last season, the Huskies finished the season with a 17-15 record and finished 5th in the Pac-12.

Along with the trip to Seattle, Bruce Pearl’s squad will also travel to Galen Center in Los Angeles to take on the USC Trojans. Both Washington and USC will be tall tasks for the Tigers early on in the season. Auburn is set to return several of its’ key contributors in [autotag]Wendell Green Jr.[/autotag], [autotag]Zep Jasper[/autotag], [autotag]K.D. Johnson[/autotag], [autotag]Dylan Cardwell[/autotag], and [autotag]Jaylin Williams[/autotag]. It will likely take some time early on in the season to gel together, especially with both [autotag]Walker Kessler[/autotag] and [autotag]Jabari Smith[/autotag] declaring for the NBA Draft.

(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

There are also several other teams that the Tigers will face as part of a home-and-home series such as St. Louis (home), South Florida (home), and Appalachian State (away). It is also worth noting that the Tigers will compete in the 2022 Cancun Challenge as well. With Auburn set to be good once again in the SEC, it will certainly face some of the more premier teams in all of college basketball prior to that.

Players that Auburn should target in the transfer portal

Taking a look at some of the players in the transfer portal that the Tigers should target.

The Auburn coaching staff has certainly seen success through the transfer portal. Last season, Auburn landed four transfers. College of Charleston transfer [autotag]Zep Jasper[/autotag], Georgia transfer [autotag]K.D. Johnson[/autotag], Eastern Kentucky transfer [autotag]Wendell Green Jr.[/autotag], and North Carolina transfer [autotag]Walker Kessler[/autotag] all joined the Tigers program last offseason. Each of them played large roles in the Tigers’ success this past season.

Three of the four will likely be back next season as well. Head coach Bruce Pearl has proven that he can send players to the league. Over the years, players like Isaac Okoro, Sharife Cooper, and Chuma Okeke have all seen their own share of success in the NBA up to this point. Two players that are suited to join them after the upcoming NBA draft are Walker Kessler and [autotag]Jabari Smith[/autotag]. It just goes to show that Pearl has accomplished a lot since he joined Auburn.

The coaching staff has shown early interest in several elite players in the transfer portal. Today, we will take a look at some of the players that they should target that are still available in the portal.

Where Auburn ranks in USA TODAY’S way-too-early preseason top 25

It is never too early for a ranking.

The 2021-22 college basketball season came to a close last night with the Kansas Jayhawks winning the national championship over the North Carolina Tarheels.

With the close of that season, it is not time to focus on the 2022-23 season, and Scott Gleeson of USA TODAY released his way-too-early men’s preseason top 25 and Auburn made the cut.

He has the Tigers as his No. 21 team in his rankings. He cited the return of [autotag]K.D. Johnson[/autotag] and [autotag]Wendell Green Jr.[/autotag] for why he included Auburn.

The Tigers will lose their best player in All-American Jabari Smith, but guards K.D. Johnson and Wendell Green Jr. return in the backcourt from a team that tailed off early but was in line for a No. 1 seed in February.

Auburn finished the season 28-6 and despite winning the SEC regular-season championship lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament to Miami.

In addition to those two, Auburn will return starters [autotag]Zep Jasper[/autotag] and [autotag]Allen Flannigan[/autotag]. [autotag]Jaylin Williams[/autotag] is also expected to slide back into the starting lineup with the departures of Smith and [autotag]Walker Kessler[/autotag].

While Auburn has plenty of returning production, Bruce Pearl and the staff are working hard to add more talent. They have a commitment from five-star center Yohan  Traore, the second highest-rated commit in program history, and signed four-star wing Chance Westry and three-star point guard Tre Donaldson.

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Key Players in Auburn’s Unprecedented Success

Reviewing the top player’s performances for Auburn during their run to the regular-season crown.

The Auburn basketball team has had several good years of hoops over the years.

The 2018-19 team made a run to the final four. The following year the Tigers made an appearance in the elite eight. It is pretty remarkable to see how much head coach Bruce Pearl has changed the atmosphere in hoops over the years on the Plains.

His success comes with the ability to recruit some of the best players in the country. By doing so, he has made the Auburn basketball program more notable as of late.

This season, the Tigers will be the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament and could potentially carry that seeding over to the NCAA Tournament if their success continues. Several players have been instrumental to the Tigers’ success this season, and I find it necessary to point out some of the key contributors for the Tigers this season.

A group of highly-regarded transfers, role players, and very successful freshmen highlight the success of the Tigers in the 2022 season.