Auburn Basketball Gets a Commitment From Ronnie Johnson, Plus Other Upcoming Visits

A few weeks into the Spring recruiting period, Auburn has landed their first commitment via the transfer market. Houston graduate transfer Ronnie Johnson has committed to Auburn adds immediate experience and depth at the point guard position that is going to be a big asset. Johnson was a 4-star, top-100 player out of high school and has averaged around 10 points and 4 assists in his two seasons at Purdue and one season at Houston. Like Tyler Harris from this season, Johnson is well-traveled and brings experiences that will be of great value to Auburn, especially when the likely starting point guard before Johnson’s commitment was freshman Jared Harper.

Johnson isn’t expected to come in and be a human highlight rule, but he’s proven that he can be a consistently good player over his career in both the Big 10 and the American Athletic Conference, which in my eyes are both better or on par with the SEC in terms of basketball. I still think that Harper will be starting by the time conference play comes along, but I now expect Johnson to get the starting job in the first games. In his commitment to Auburn, Johnson talked about Bruce Pearl’s competitiveness and felt like it paired well with his own competitive nature. This is exactly what I want to hear from an Auburn commit. I realize almost every player says things like this, but at times last season, urgency seemed to be missing on several occasions. Johnson’s competitiveness will be  a big benefit in practice and then once the season comes around to motivate younger guys to keep playing hard.

Things could get a little weird since Auburn has the possibility of facing Purdue when the Tigers and the Boilermakers both compete in the Cancun Challenge near the beginning of the season. Johnson ultimately decided to transfer from Purdue after the 2013-2014 season despite scoring 697 points and dishing 256 assists in his 66 games. Johnson was only the third player to have 500 points and 200 assists before their Junior season in Purdue history.

Even with a commitment from Johnson, Auburn still has 2 spots left to fill and still only has one big man, Anfernee McLemore, in a class that needs to add some more size. There are still a few options that the Tigers are pursuing and an even smaller group of guys that have a higher chance of picking the Tigers. If you want to see the full list from a little over a week ago, I wrote about all the potential players that could complete Auburn’s class.

Since then, Presbyterian transfer and the Big South’s leading scorer, DeSean Murray says that he his choosing between Auburn and Middle Tennessee. Murray is scheduled to visit Auburn this weekend and I expect we’ll hear his decision shortly after the visit since he has already taken a visit the Murfreesboro earlier this month. Murray is transferring from Presbyterian because he wants to showcase his skills against bigger schools and wants to become a better player against better competition. At first thought, this would seem that Auburn would be the easy choice, but the Tigers did lose to the Blue Raiders this season and Middle Tennessee went on to not only win the Conference USA, but also upset Michigan State in one of the greatest NCAA Tournament upsets of all time. Auburn has the bigger brand, but Middle Tennessee isn’t just a small school and would be a step up from Presbyterian, which is what Murray is looking for. Wherever Murray chooses to go next, he will have to sit out a year before playing in the 2017-2018 season. However, if Murray ends up at Auburn, he’ll be a talented player that can play both as a slashing 3 or a smaller 4 that can cause a mismatch against other bigs.

Also visiting Auburn this weekend is 6′-8″ PF Merrill Holden, a graduate transfer from Louisiana Tech. First things first, Holden would be a nice fit at Auburn simply because his nickname is ‘Pearl Jam.’ Holden would obviously fill one of the voids down low, although it would be nice to see him add a few more pounds to his 6’8″ frame. Between Trayvon Reed and Horace Spencer, it would be nice to see Auburn get a big, strong forward or center, but at this point, any depth down low is all that’s needed. I’d love to see both Holden and Murray love their visits this weekend and both decide to complete Auburn’s recruiting class. While that would be wishful thinking, I think that Holden is highly considering Auburn, but he’s also got a handful of other teams, including Illinois, Cincinnati, Central Florida, UNLV, and Alabama, and doesn’t seem to be close to deciding. As a graduate transfer, Holden would be able to play immediately which would be a big (literally) benefit for Auburn and it’s front line.

The third and final player that has announced they’ll be in Auburn this weekend is Jalen Hudson, a 6’5″ SG transfer from Virginia Tech. Hudson comes in at #9 on Jeff Goodman’s top 10 available transfer list (Ronnie Johnson was also an honorable mention). Although, like Murray, Hudson would have to sit out a year, he would again be a very skilled player and a a nice addition to the Auburn basketball program. Hudson almost averaged double figures in just 20 minutes per contest while with the Hokies. Auburn is competing with several other big names for Hudson’s commitment, but at least the Tigers already have a visit set and have the benefit of bringing him in on the same weekend as two other high-priority targets.

With the commitment from Ronnie Johnson, Auburn is one for one on getting commitments from players that have publicly visited the Plains. Can Auburn stay perfect after this weekend as well? Probably not, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see the Tigers finish up the 2016 class by the end of next week. Outside of the transfers mentioned above, there are still a handful of other transfers and Junior College players that Auburn is slightly targeting. There is also a few open offers to high school seniors, but this late in the recruiting period, it’s looking less and less likely that Auburn will add any more freshman to this class.

As always, college basketball recruiting is pretty fluent, especially at this time of year. I’m trying to stay on top of it all and will continue to share my thoughts periodically as big news is announced and am always trying to keep up with everything on Twitter as well.

The end of recruiting is near, and then the real fun begins: summer practice.