Bruce Pearl addresses moving on without Jabari Smith, Walker Kessler

Bruce Pearl has to find some players to fill in some very big frontcourt shoes this winter. After dominating for Auburn last season, Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler were both selected in the 2022 NBA Draft. With them about to start their pro careers, Pearl now has to find a way to recreate that production.

Pearl spoke about filling Smith and Kessler’s void during media at the start of the Tiger’s preseason practices. He said he realizes how big of a gap that players like those two create. Now he wants to see how this year’s team can replenish it in order to help the program compete again this season.

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“I think I had a better team (last year than this year). It’s never happened before…I used to say this with Chris Lofton at Tennessee. All things are equal, but we got No. 5 and you don’t. We had Lofton and you don’t. And there were times (last season) that all things were equal, but we had Jabari and you didn’t. We had Walker…So now we are Jabari-less,” said Pearl. “So the question is have the returning players improved enough, depending on where they are, for us to be able to compete for the SEC championship again?”

Auburn finished 28-6 last season, held the AP Poll’s No. 1 spot for three weeks, and eventually lost in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 32 to Miami. Smith was a key part of the offense that got them there with averages of 16.9 points and 7.4 rebounds on 42.9% shooting from the field and 42% from three. Meanwhile, Kessler was the defensive anchor with a ridiculous 4.6 blocks per game as the SEC and Naismith Defensive Player of the Year.

With them gone, Pearl and the Tigers must now lean on some new faces. At one spot, they’ll have Morehead State transfer Johni Broome. As a sophomore with the Eagles, he averaged 16.8 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 3.9 blocks per game. At the other spot, they’ll be counting on freshman big Yohan Traore. Traore was On3’s No. 23 player in the 2022 class and showed decent flashes during the Tiger’s preseason trip to Israel. The question for Pearl is now whether they will be enough to live up to Auburn’s pair of first-round picks.

“Will Johni and Yohan be able to fill in? Because they’re gonna get a lot of the minutes that Walker and Jabari got. What’s that going to be like?,” said Pearl.

It will be almost impossible to replicate what Smith and Kessler brought to Pearl’s program a season ago. However, a similar foundation is there for this year’s duo. Traore may not have the same game as Smith, but he’s just as highly-touted a freshman. Broome is also a transfer just like Kessler was from North Carolina a year ago. The puzzle pieces may not be perfect fits, but they’ll need to be close if Auburn wants to be back in the SEC and national conversation in 2023.