Bruce Pearl urges Auburn fans to treat Allen Flanigan well in return

The NCAA transfer portal has turned college sports upside down, with the number of players hopping in and out creating rosters that are sometimes hard to recognize.

Even veterans have chosen to use the portal to find a new opportunity late in their careers, like former Auburn forward Allen Flanigan. Flanigan transferred to Ole Miss this offseason.

He’ll return to Auburn on Saturday night and it’s unclear what kind of welcome he’ll get.

“Well what I just want, look, everybody, they all want to be haters when guys leave,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said in an appearance on ESPN on Saturday. “And look, Seth (Greenberg), you transferred in your career to some different places. Transferring’s not an awful thing.”

Pearl certainly has his own opinions on the transfer portal and some of the rules that have made college basketball a mercenary sport of sorts. We’ll get to those in a bit.

But it was his take on Allen Flanigan’s return that Pearl was most interested in sharing. He’s hoping Flanigan actually gets a warm welcome, reiterating as much publicly.

“Allen Flanigan graduated from Auburn,” Pearl said. “He played for us for four years. And he got better every year. And you know what, I just want our fans and I want the Jungle, because the Jungle can be a little crazy and it can be a little nasty, I just wanted them to recognize him as one of ours.”

In four years at Auburn Flanigan certainly made some quality contributions.

He finished with 996 points, 479 rebounds and 167 assists. He also came away with 74 steals and 19 blocks. Needless to say, he was a productive player that Auburn would have loved to have stick around another year.

Flanigan saw an opportunity elsewhere.

It seems to be paying off for him, too, as Allen Flanigan is averaging a career-high 16.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game for the Rebels. He’ll certainly make it a compelling contest on Saturday night.

As for Pearl’s overall thoughts on transfers, he offered the following while speaking to ESPN.

“I like the one-time transfer,” Pearl said. “I don’t like this new rule of you can go any time you want. I just think it teaches kids to flee, not fight.”