Auburn Basketball 2016 Spring Recruiting Update

Despite another disappointing season, Bruce Pearl is still bringing in plenty of talent with a great class already started for 2016. Auburn still has a few pieces that they would like to fill and with the spring signing period beginning and the transfer market booming, Bruce Pearl and his staff are going to be quite busy over the next few months.

As most Auburn fans are familiar with, it’s not too difficult to keep up with football recruiting news, as almost everyone including both media and fans are obsessed with where players are going to pick. This isn’t too surprising as Auburn has always been a football first school that has had major success on the recruiting side for the past several years. For basketball, things are a little different. Not only is Auburn not a household name for top basketball prospects, it’s also a much more complicated process. Along with the top high school seniors, basketball recruiting has a lot to do with Junior College guys as well as a growing pool of transfers at all different stages or eligibility. As an avid Auburn basketball fan, I do my best to try and keep up with all the ins and outs of Auburn’s recruiting and I’m going to try and lay it all out for those that can’t or haven’t been able to keep up with it all so far.

What is Auburn losing?

For now, Auburn is obviously losing quite a bit of its front court with Cinmeon Bowers, Tyler Harris, and Jordon Granger all graduating. On top of that, the dismissal of Kareem Canty towards the end of the season also added a little bit of a twist to the Tigers’ needs. In total, Auburn is losing four scholarship players along with walk-on Zach Allison who is the only player that has announced they are transferring so far. At this stage, I don’t expect Auburn will be losing any more guys, but there might be a few more players that shift around to open up spots at certain positions or on scholarship. With all of this being said, it is no surprise that Auburn’s main concern is loading up on frontcourt size along with hopefully finding a veteran guard or two via the transfer market or Junior College. If Devin Waddell and everyone else remains on scholarship at Auburn and Tahj Shamsid-Deen is able to return for next season, Auburn has four available scholarships for the 2016-2017 season.

Who does Auburn already have?

After an impressive first full class for Bruce Pearl in 2015, the 2016 class has already been even better. Auburn signed its first ever 5-star recruit in the form of Mustapha Heron, a 6’5″ guard from Sacred Heart High School in Connecticut. Heron will give Auburn a serious scoring threat from the very beginning and has the size and power to attack the rim, which will be refreshing to see from an Auburn guard. Joining Heron in the 2016 class are 5’9″ point guard Jared Harper and 6’8″ forward Anfernee McLemore. Both Harper and McLemore have been rated as 4-stars on some sites while McLemore is usually seen as a 3-star prospect. Harper will come in and add a dynamic scoring threat from the point guard position and has been growing on scouts since his impressive performances since last summer. McLemore will add more size down low and has the ability to develop into a solid big for the Tigers in the coming years.

While they’re not necessarily new players, Auburn will also get to see Danjel Purifoy for the first time next season and the return of Trayvon Reed. Purifoy has been heralded as one of the best players on Auburn’s team but had to sit out last season due to eligibility issues. Reed took a break last season to work on some personal issues as well as bulking up and adding weight to his 7’2″ frame. Purifoy is a 6’7″ guard that could also spend some time as a small forward depending on the lineup on the floor while Reed adds obvious size down low and can be a vigilant protector of the rim.

Who’s Auburn targeting?

Here’s where it starts to get confusing. Between major sites like Scout, 247Sports, ESPN, VerbalCommits, and others, it’s usually hard to keep up with who Auburn is looking at, who Auburn has offered, especially when Junior College players and transfers are thrown into the mix. I’ve done my best to compile a list of players that I have heard Auburn mentioned with. This either means that Auburn has sent a scout to watch them, Auburn has offered the player, or the player is just interested in playing for Auburn. This list will obviously change almost daily but I will continue to try and tweet out updates as I learn more. Here’s the list I have at the moment:

Yuat Alok – 6’11”, 200 lbs. PF from Impact Basketball Academy: Auburn has offered Alok along with Florida, Georgia Tech, and Texas. Alok has not announced any visits so far.

Cameron Diggs – 6’8″, 185 lbs. PF from Blount High School: Auburn has offered Diggs along with Middle Tennessee, Illinois State, and Florida A&M. Diggs has not announced any visits so far.

L.G. Gill – 6’7″, 210 lbs. F graduating and transferring from Duquesne: Auburn is one of many in line for this graduate transfer who will be available immediately. Marquette, Maryland, Texas, and others appear to have the most talk surrounding the forward.

Eron Gordon – 6’3″, 180 lbs. SG from North Central High School: Auburn has offered Gordon along with several other schools. Gordon is one of the top remaining overall prospects in the 2016 class. Auburn has a slim chance of landing this guard as he is leaning towards Butler or Seton Hall at the moment.

Jalen Hudson – 6’5″, 195 lbs. SG transferring from Virginia Tech: Auburn is in on an early list for Hudson along with Purdue, Florida, UNLV, Butler, Creighton, Illinois, VCU, Tennessee, and others. Hudson has scheduled a visit to Auburn from April 29th – May 1st and will have two years of eligibility remaining after sitting out a year.

Ronnie Johnson – 6′, 180 lbs. PG graduating and transferring from Houston: Johnson visited Auburn this past weekend (April 7th) while NC State, Seton Hall, Washington, West Virginia, and Georgia State are in the mix. Johnson will be eligible immediately.

Freddie McSwain – 6’6″, 220 lbs. SF from Neosho Community College: Auburn has offered along with Indiana, Kansas State, ECU, and many others. Indiana is currently predicted to land the talented Junior College transfer.

DeSean Murray – 6’5″, 225 lbs. SF transferring from Presbyterian College: Murray was the leading scorer in the Big South Conference last season and is also interested in UNLV and Middle Tennessee. Murray would have to sit out a year and has two years of eligibility remaining.

Emmanuel Ugboh – 6’11”, 260 lbs. C from Elite Preparatory Academy: Auburn has offered Ugboh along with Arkansas, Baylor, Mississippi State, Tennessee, and UT-Martin. Ugboh has not announced any visits so far.

There are a few other players on my list currently, but there have either been very little mention of Auburn or they seem to have no interest in picking Auburn so I have left them off of this list for now. As more and more transfers become free and start to make their visits, Auburn will likely be looking to add one or two. Once again, I will continue to follow along and try and keep people updated on Twitter.

Personally, I would expect Auburn to land a guard from either Junior College or a graduate transfer to fill Canty’s spot for next season and I would like us to get one of the lesser talked about bigs from the high school ranks. Auburn needs another guard next season but we’ll need a big that can develop over the next few years.

The spring signing period started yesterday, April 13th and runs until May 18th. It will be a busy month for Bruce Pearl and his staff as they try and fill the last few pieces of the puzzle in hopes of further improving an impressive class already. This is one of my favorite times of the recruiting period and it will be really interesting to see who Auburn can land within the next month.