re: #tAuburnBasketball Thread

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A poster on 247 reports reports that Akingabola is back in the United States. Guess his visa issue or whatever is cleared up.

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The three sanctions included an unidentified staff member paying to retrieve a athlete’s car after it was illegally parked. The athlete’s aid was reduced by $85 and the staffer was suspended for three days without pay. This occurred in January 2017.

The second penalty occurred in Sept. 2018, when Auburn paid for a meal to an individual accompanying a prospect. The violation wasn’t reported until the prospect committed to Auburn. The conference said the unnamed assistant coach couldn’t recruit for a 15-day period, which started last month.

The third penalty occurred in April 2017, and involved an assistant coach having knowledge of a basketball game with prospects that included a student manager. Auburn suspended the assistant coach’s recruiting privileges for a two-week period in July 2017.

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He will soon be in Dallas and won’t be dealing with him anymore. I thought Joel Erickson was a good one. Wish he would come back.

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Ofc, we could get someone worse. lol.

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Pearl planning shift in style

AUBURN | Last season, Auburn used its speed, defense and 3-point shooting to advance to the first Final Four in program history.

But Jared Harper, Bryce Brown and Chuma Okeke — the keystones of that attack — are off to play professional ball, leaving coach Bruce Pearl with a new team and a new approach for his sixth season leading the Tigers.

“They were all really good shooters. I can’t imagine we’re going to shoot it as well or be as fast,” Pearl said. “We’re going to be bigger, stronger, more physical and we’re going to have to go to our strengths.”

The strengths start in the frontcourt where Auburn returns seniors Anfernee McLemore and Austin Wiley. McLemore, who can play forward or center, and Wiley, who is a more traditional center, have overcome injuries in their Auburn careers but enter this fall in the best shape of their careers.

Senior forward/wing Danjel Purifoy also returns and the frontcourt will be further bolstered by the addition of freshman center Babatunde Akingbola, a premiere shot blocker, freshman forward/wing Isaac Okoro, a physical defender, freshman forward/wing Devan Cambridge, freshman forward Jaylin Williams and junior college transfer forward Javon Franklin.

“We’ve got great experience on the front line, we’ve got great depth on the front line and we’re just by nature of our roster going to be much bigger. Therefore we’re not going to be as fast,” Pearl said.

The backcourt will be led by senior point guard J’Von McCormick and senior wing Samir Doughty, but depth is an issue with freshman Tyrell Jones expected to backup McCormick at point and freshman Allen Flanigan providing depth on the wing. Further help will come from sophomore wing Jamal Johnson, who sat out last season after transferring from Memphis.

Defensively, Auburn has mainly relied on an aggressive man-to-man defense to force turnovers and jumpstart the fast break under Pearl. But that approach could also be modified to fit this year’s team.

“We’ll probably play some more zone than we’ve been playing because of our length,” Pearl said.

While there will definitely be some changes, there’s also plenty that won’t change thanks to the leadership of Pearl’s five seniors and a group of newcomers that are determined to make an early mark.

“You talk about culture, the biggest thing that’s left from where we left off was the work ethic and the culture of working and the culture of being in the gym,” Pearl said. “And that’s just continued all summer. Our guys were in the gym all summer.

“We’re only out with them for four hours a week, and we were, and they get a total of eight. But I know they do a lot of stuff on their own. I’m just telling you, we’ve got a team of gym rats.”

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