An In-Depth Look at Auburn Basketball’s Injuries and Roster Issues

Yes, Auburn basketball has been on quite a decline over the past few weeks and has had a disappointing season as a whole. Coming into the season Auburn seemed to have a bigger pool of overall talent with transfers Kareem Canty, Tyler Harris, and T.J. Dunans along with a solid recruiting class. Then one thing after another has led to the Tigers playing with a shell of a team and losing games all along.

Auburn started the season with Bryce Brown sitting out one game due to a minor violation over the summer, New Williams sat out with a knee injury, and Tahj Shamsid-Deen was letting another minor shoulder injury fully heal as a precaution. From game one Auburn has been affected by injuries, but luckily nothing was too serious in the beginning.

Tahj Shamsid-Deen has become quite familiar with the bench over the past two seasons due to an unfortunate string of shoulder injuries and shoulder surgeries. Shamsid-Deen missed the UAB game due to a minor injury in pre-season practice but immediately came back for Auburn’s next game against Colorado. Shamsid-Deen was able to play a few minutes in each game up until Northwestern State where he sustained yet another shoulder injury.

Bruce Pearl knew the severity of this situation based on Tahj’s past and told people that one more injury would likely lead to shutting down Shamsid-Deen for the year. Sadly, this came much sooner than expected as Tahj went down early in Auburn’s game against Xavier and has been out since and will be out for the rest of the season.

After undergoing surgery on both shoulders last season, Tahj had to undergo yet another surgery after just appearing in five games this season. Tahj’s journey has been incredibly unlucky and is a shame for such a hard working player. Hopefully we haven’t seen the last of Shamsid-Deen, but Bruce Pearl has said he’ll have to make that decision later.

Next, and probably the most important injury this season, has been T.J. Dunans after he suffered a knee injury going up for a rebound against Harvard in the Diamond Head Classic. Dunans was Auburn’s best all around player and provided a great spark on both offense and defense.Dunans is now walking and practicing a bit, but Bruce Pearl has said that he still needs to get strength back in his quads before he can really start playing again.

For Dunans, while he would add a boost to the team if he comes back, he’s also on pace to get a medical redshirt if Auburn chooses to keep him out for the remainder of the a season. In order to be eligible for a medical redshirt a player must play in 30 percent or fewer of the team’s games. Assuming Auburn loses in their first game of the SEC Tournament they will have played 31 games. Thirty percent of 31 games is 9.3, which rounds up to 10 in this case. Dunans has played in exactly 10 games for the Tigers, therefore the medical redshirt is a serious possibility.

Personally, the way this season has gone, it’s not very worthwhile letting Dunans play the last few games instead of likely earning an entire extra year. Dunans can be a really good player for Auburn and it will be nice to see what he can accomplish in two healthy years.

Freshman guard New Williams is the third and final Auburn player to miss significant time with an injury. Williams had ACL surgery before his senior year of high school but still recovered to play minutes during his senior year, and even managed to regain his incredible 47-inch vertical.

However, Williams couldn’t avoid the injury bug going around Auburn and he has been sidelined officially for two stretches this season – both at the beginning and right before conference play. Williams has missed eight games total and has only received limited minutes in the few games he played in up until recently.

Due to recent suspensions to Kareem Canty, Williams is finally starting to play significant minutes and shows short flashes of what Auburn has been missing. Without the ongoing injury and knee brace, New Williams could have potentially been a very explosive player for Auburn this season. He should improve a lot over the offseason and hopefully will come back for a strong sophomore season.

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On injuries alone, Auburn players have missed a combined 39 games. Now to consider the suspensions and other issues Auburn has had to deal with:

The biggest one that everyone has talked about all season has been the lack of a decision on the eligibility of freshman guard Danjel Purifoy. Purifoy is most likely the best player coming out of this season’s freshmen class, but we probably won’t get to find out for sure until next year.

The NCAA has been trying to clear up a questionable ACT score all season and has pushed back their decision numerous times. It’s now the middle of February and Auburn has yet to hear a ruling on whether Purifoy is cleared to play or not. Bruce Pearl hasn’t been happy with the whole way this situation has been handled, and Auburn fans haven’t been either.

Auburn might get a ruling at some point this season, but as of now it’s most likely that Purifoy will just be a redshirt-Freshman heading into next season. Having him on the court could have had a huge effect on this season, but instead we’ve just been able to ask Bruce about updates the entire time with almost no progression.

Another big issue, literally, has been the absence of Trayvon Reed. The 7-foot-2 center had a lackluster season last year and then missed the fall semester due to personal reasons. He has since rejoined the team and is working out to get ready for next season. There was a very small chance of him playing this season, but he could have come in handy with the depth issues Auburn’s found themselves in.

Reed will continue to bulk up and in the offseason and hopefully can come into next year and be a good addition for the Tigers under the basket. He has the potential to be a solid backup to Horace Spencer and protect the rim while the other shot blocker is on the bench.

Recently, Auburn has dealt with two high profile suspensions with the second of the two being much more serious. After starting another losing streak and a reckless game against Ole Miss, Bruce Pearl decided to suspend Cinmeon Bowers for the Oklahoma State game so that the senior could get his mind right. Bowers had reacted well to being benched earlier in the season and the effects had started to wear off where Bruce felt another suspension was necessary. Bowers has been slightly better since coming back and hasn’t seemed to be an issue off the court anymore as well.

The biggest bomb of all was dropped when Bruce Pearl suspended Kareem Canty indefinitely before the Georgia game. To make the news even bigger, Pearl decided to name Cinmeon Bowers the starting point guard in Canty’s absence.

Bruce Pearl has said that the suspension is due to “conduct detrimental to the team,” but has also said that the offense was much more serious than Bowers’s earlier suspension for a similar thing. Canty is officially suspended indefinitely and I wouldn’t be shocked if we don’t see him the rest of the year.

While Canty has been a good boost for Auburn on the court most of this season, he’s had a pretty bad attitude off the court and appears to be a cancer to the rest of the team as well. With a team loaded with young talent, a player like Canty can’t let his attitude and selfishness get in the way of the team getting better as a whole.

Losing has been hard on everyone, but I think it’s gotten to Kareem the most. Auburn’s offense will struggle without their top guard, but in the long run I think this is the right decision and as more information comes out, hopefully others agree with me.

This season has had a few highlights with wins over UAB, Kentucky, and Alabama, but has ultimately been soured by all of the injuries and off-the-court issues. It’s a shame that I’m able to write a 1,500 word piece just updating the issues that Auburn has had to deal with up to this point.

Bruce Pearl has started to take fire from less involved fans, but those in the know aren’t questioning the coaches abilities quite yet. Pearl inherited a really bad program, and while trying to bring it back to prominence almost everything that could have gone wrong, has gone wrong this season. It’s hard to watch, but at least the future is still bright, no matter how cliche that phrase has become.

In summary, Auburn has had to deal with major injuries and other roster issues that have been a major cause for their ultimately disappointing season. The players that are currently not playing, Kareem Canty, Danjel Purifoy, Tahj Shamsid-Deen, Trayvon Reed, etc. would make one impressive starting lineup. Instead, they’ll continue to sit on the bench and won’t be able to contribute this season at the very least.

In total, Auburn players have missed 74 games overall and that number will likely grow close to 100 by the end of the season. It’s hard to accept, but that’s what this season has become. Unfortunately, all we can really do is look forward to next season.

War Eagle, always.