Auburn Basketball: Austin Wiley and Mustapha Heron in the NBA Draft
By Ty Roush
Here we discuss Auburn basketball’s Austin Wiley and Mustapha Heron, two players who have the ability to be taken in the first round of the NBA draft.
Auburn basketball has taken a turn this season down a road of success. A possibility to have the first 20-win season since 2008-09, Auburn is closing in on a highly successful season with motivation rolling into the 2017-18 campaign. As Bruce Pearl continues his project on the Plains, the Tigers will seemingly look to become one of the more dominant teams in the SEC and potentially Division I basketball.
Pearl has been blessed with a talented freshman class with 5-stars Austin Wiley and Mustapha Heron. These two are coupled with Jared Harper and Danjel Purifoy with Anfernee McLemore coming off the bench. NBA talent has been absent from the Plains for the better part of two decades, with the last first round pick coming from Mamadou N’Diaye in 2000. As the 2017-18 season is drawing closer, one that has the potential of a SEC regular season run, Auburn may have first round talent in Wiley and Heron.
The Plains have yet to see a dominant center since N’Diaye, a 7-foot 255-pounder who headed to the Denver Nuggets with the No. 26 pick. N’Diaye was defensively sound and offensively efficient, shooting 53.5 percent in his final season with Auburn. Wiley does not have too many parallels with N’Diaye, but he does possess talent in the post that is worthy of mention.
Wiley has had time to develop with both USA Basketball and as a Pearl pupil, surrounding himself with talented coaching staffs and, as it looks to be in 2017-18, talented players as well. He not only has the size and strength to take on any forward or center on the court, but there is still room for him to develop a jump shot. A form that many guards would gladly exchange for, Wiley appears to have an opening to spread the floor or anchor down in the paint.
I find Wiley to be more of a traditional center talent, with contributing size and rebounding abilities that could easily be developed into an elite NBA level.
Mustapha Heron, on the other hand, is something that Auburn hasn’t seen since Chuck Person. Person, in contrast, was a 6-foot-8 forward more known for his rifleman shooting ability. Heron is a 6-foot-5 guard who has shown to be a good rebounder and efficient driver down the lane. His motor seems to be running at all times, fatigue seemingly not becoming a piece of his offense.
Heron will, most likely, not require so much time to develop than Wiley. An ability to score that rivals any top prospect in the upcoming 2017 NBA draft, Heron has been a key piece in Pearl’s culture transformation of basketball in Auburn.
Both of these players have the capacity to reach into the NBA draft, but it is hoped that with more experience and more seasons with Pearl, Heron and Wiley could put Auburn back on the map for basketball.
I would like to see both of these players push Auburn into a possible regular season championship or an SEC Championship finale. Pushing ahead of what Kentucky has established will be a difficult task, but establishing the program as the next Florida would be interesting to watch. Heron and Wiley will be what brings the program to the next level, and they might be playing key roles on a NBA some time in the future.
Next: Auburn's All-Time Baseball Rotation
Here’s to Arkansas and rolling to 20 wins.