SEC Basketball Preview: Bruce Pearl Gives KSR+ a Look at Auburn

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The SEC Preview train continues to roll on here at KSR+. 

We’ve previewed Ole Miss, LSU, Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama so far. Instead of talking to a beat writer for this one, we went straight to the source as Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl broke down his 2023-24 Auburn Tigers squad in an interview with KSR+. 

“This has been probably the hardest working group I’ve had at Auburn,” Pearl said. “I think we’ve got really good depth. We’re two deep at every position. When we go to the bench, we won’t drop off much. We’ll just change, be different.” 

Pearl said this team has a good mix of older players, even though the players from the transfer portal were considered “not very highly ranked as a group” by many pundits. 

The Point Guards 

While the rest of Auburn’s team will be an experienced squad, Bruce Pearl’s point guard group will be the youngest of the bunch. Competing for the starting job will be Tre Donaldson and Aden Holloway. 

“Point guard will be the only position on the team where we will be young,” Pearl said. “They both have really good leadership ability. They can both shoot.” 

Donaldson returns as a sophomore after averaging 2.5 points in 10.6 minutes per game last season.

“Tre’s got a toughness about him, obviously being a great high school football player,” Pearl said.

Meanwhile, Holloway, a freshman, comes in as the No. 18 overall recruit in the class and a McDonald’s All-American. 

“Aden has got another gear,” Pearl said. “The lights come on and he can make shots anywhere and everywhere.” 

The Shooting Guards

Shooting guard is a position that features a transfer and a returnee in Denver Jones and returning senior K.D. Johnson.

Jones, who transferred in from Florida International, averaged 20.1 points on 47.8 percent from the field during the 2022-23 season. 

“He’s a true combo guard that can impact the game on both ends,” Bruce Pearl said. “He can score at the rim or from the three.” 

Pearl said that Johnson will play the two-position as well after averaging 8.9 points and 1.9 rebounds per game last season. 

“KD plays with great effort and energy,” he said. “He can be a real factor defensively with his athleticism and ball pressure, his ability to get to the rim. He’s improved his shooting.” 

Wing is “Probably Our Deepest Position” 

If there’s one position that Auburn will have plenty of depth, it’s the wing spot. The position features players such as Chris Moore, Chad Baker-Mazara, and Lior Berman. 

“Wing is probably our deepest position right now,” Bruce Pearl said. 

Moore, a 6-foot-7, 230-pound senior out of Arkansas, averaged 3.5 points and 2.1 rebounds per game last year, playing 14.4 minutes per game. 

“He’s strong, physical, tough,” Pearl said. “He makes everybody better on the floor with his ability to communicate. He’s an improved shooter, guards multiple positions, can play a lot of positions, and is very versatile.” 

Baker-Mazara, a 6-foot-7, 190-pound wing began his college career at Duquesne before being the sixth man on San Diego State’s 2021-22 team, transferring again to junior college, and finally transferring to Auburn this offseason. 

Baker-Mazara won an NJCAA national championship last season at Northwest Florida State while averaging a team-high 15.2 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game. 

“He’s really, really, really long,” Pearl said. “He really just knows how to play. Offensively, he can shoot it. He can make the midrange. He can pass it. He’s a great back cutter. He’s got a real feel for the game.” 

Berman, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound wing, returning for his fifth year as a graduate student averaged 2.2 points and 1.2 rebounds in 9.4 minutes per game last year. 

“[Berman] has been just a staple on the roster for years,” Pearl said. “He’s a really good shooter, obviously. He’s a dependable three-point shooting threat, a tough, physical defender, and a cagey veteran.” 

The Four Spot

While wing might be their deepest position, power forward is a position that Bruce Pearl is confident about. It’s easy to be confident when you have the soon-to-be winningest player in Auburn history starting at the position. 

Jaylin Williams, a 6-foot-8, 230-pound senior forward, has been part of 87 total wins since his freshman year in 2019-20. One more win and he becomes the winningest player in Auburn men’s basketball history. 

“He’s been a huge part of the resurrection of our program,” Pearl said. “He’s a left-hander, great float game, scores inside and out.” 

However, he has some competition at the power forward position in the form of 6-foot-7, 215-pound senior forward Chaney Johnson. Johnson, who transfers in from Alabama-Huntsville, averaged 15.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game in Division 2 last season. 

“He was one of the better players in Division 2 basketball last year,” Pearl said. “One of the great things about the transfer portal is now he gets to go to the SEC. It’s a big jump, but he can make it. He’s athletic, one of the hardest workers I’ve ever coached.” 

Pearl said both Williams and Chaney will be playing a “big guard position” similar to that of Chuma Okeke, JT Thor, Jabari Smith, and Isaac Okoro in years past. 

“Those are four guys in the NBA in the NBA that played that position in the last four or five years,” Pearl said. “Chaney is a really good defender and people are going to enjoy watching him play.” 

“Deepest Front Line in The League” 

The SEC has a lot of good frontcourts, but Bruce Pearl believes that Auburn’s can stack up with the best of them. 

“I think we’ve got the deepest front line in the league,” Pearl said. “The best of the deepest front line.”

Leading that front line is center Johni Broome, who returns for his fourth season of college basketball and second season at Auburn. Broome averaged 14.2 points and 8.4 rebounds last season while shooting 52.7 percent from the field and 29 percent from three. 

“He’s an old school, back to the basket, inside type of player that showed last year he can stretch the defense with his three ball,” Pearl said. “He’s going to do that even more this year, he’s a very underrated passer with a high basketball IQ, and he’s a really good athlete for a big man.” 

Then there’s 6-foot-10 senior big Dylan Cardell, who Pearl called “one of the biggest, most athletic centers in the country.”  

“He really impacts the game defensively,” he said. “He’s really good in the air, like Walker Kessler was. All those guys do a pretty good job of protecting the rim.” 

‘Better Offensively than Defensively’

Heading into the 2023-24 season, Auburn will be asked to rely heavily on its offense as the defense looks to grow. 

“We really can shoot the ball,” Bruce Pearl said. “I think we’ll be really good offensively. Defensively, we’ll see. We’ll learn a lot about us [at our scrimmage Sunday]. I think we’re probably better offensively than we are defensively.” 

As for the defense, Pearl said he’s working to integrate the new pieces. 

“That’s going to be the biggest area for growth,” he said. “We have so many new guys. Between Aden, Denver, Chad, and Chaney, those are four new guys that will be in our top-seven, top-eight in and out players. We’ve got to be one of those teams that gets better throughout the season.” 

Pearl also addressed the change the NCAA’s one-time free transfer rule has had on getting newcomers up to speed. 

“Only about 16 percent of the Top-100 high school players over the last couple of years have averaged double-digit minutes and double-digit points,” Pearl said. “Unless you’re a McDonald’s All-American or a Top-25 player, it’s really hard to play a ton early. Unless they’re willing to be patient, that’s something that’s a great challenge.” 

Pearl said that the transfer portal teaches players to “flee a little bit rather than fight.” 

“Sometimes you have a transfer and he’s already had to wait a little bit and understood the jump,” he said. 

The SEC Continues to Improve

The SEC has long been considered one of the top conferences in college basketball and it’s only getting better. Bruce Pearl said that, from top to bottom, the league is “really strong.” 

“It’s never been stronger,” he said. “There are certain teams that finished the bottom or near the bottom last year. With our coaches’ abilities, NIL has become an equalizer. For me, developing pros and winning championships has been our calling card. That separated Auburn a little bit in the recruiting process.” 

Auburn has still been able to thrive in the face of added competition, winning 143 games in the last six years, second behind only Tennessee at 144. 

“Auburn basketball has, over the last six years, arguably been one of the top two or three programs in our league,” Pearl said. “The challenge is that anybody can get it going, but can we keep it going? That’s what we’re trying to do.” 

Auburn has also won eight NCAA Tournament games in the last six years and was the last SEC team to make the Final Four in 2019-20. 

“I’m proud of what we’ve done and the challenge is can we keep it going,” Pearl said.