Auburn forward Jahki Howard strangely tweets during halftime vs. Tennessee

Auburn forward Jahki Howard left many fans puzzled with a tweet Saturday evening. The timing of the post was odd, to say the least, as it occurred during halftime of a game against Tennessee.

Howard didn’t have much to say, merely tweeting two emojis of hands praying and a man rubbing his head. It’s hard to make sense of what exactly he might have meant, but he clearly thought better of the decision as he deleted the tweet after the game, which the Tigers won 53-51.

At the time of the tweet, Howard had not scored a single point and had one assist in the game. The forward has been mostly a nonfactor for the Tigers of late, as he has failed to score in double digits since Dec. 14.

Howard is in his first season at Auburn as a true freshman who ranked as a four-star recruit out of Overtime Elite Academy. He was the No. 70 overall player and No. 23 small forward in the cycle according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

This isn’t the first sign of trouble that Howard has had early in his college career. In November, he got into an altercation with forward Ja’Heim Hudson on a team flight that resulted in him sitting out the next five games due to suspension.

He returned on Nov. 27 against Memphis. Two games later, he scored a career-high 13 points against Richmond.

The promise that Jahki Howard showed after returning from suspension has seemed to fizzle out somewhat, however. He’s started to receive less playing time as conference play has started and played only five minutes Saturday.

Perhaps some of his frustrations were beginning to boil over, which led to the tweet. He wasn’t completely out of the rotation in the second half, playing two minutes, so it doesn’t seem as if he has fallen completely out of favor with coaches just yet.

Hopefully he can put this behind him and focus on finishing out the season strong as he attempts to regain his form from early in the year. The Tigers are next set to face LSU at 6 p.m. CT on Wednesday.