Auburn basketball: The 5 most underrated players of the Bruce Pearl era

These players didn’t get enough credit during their Auburn careers.

Under the leadership of head coach Bruce Pearl, Auburn basketball has gone from SEC basement dwellers to legitimate contenders. It took a few seasons to get going but the Pearl era has been a major success and if we count this past season, the team has made the NCAA Tournament three years in a row and made a run to the Final Four in 2019.

The Tigers’ recent success has been fueled by star players like Bryce Brown, Chuma Okeke and Jared Harper. But what about the guys who aren’t the focal point of the team? The guys that won’t receive much NB Attention or even start for their teams?

Star players can carry a team to a certain point but if you don’t have depth and great roleplayers, you’ll often fall short. Auburn has had plenty of great supporting players in the past six seasons. Whether it’s a legitimate star that didn’t get enough credit or a bench player that filled their role especially well, these are the most underrated Auburn players of the Pearl era.

Before Antoine Mason came to Auburn, he had already established himself as one of the best scorers in the NCAA. As a junior at Niagara University, the 6-foot-1 guard averaged 25.6 points per game.

So heading into Bruce Pearl’s first season with Auburn, it was a big deal when the Tigers added the nation’s leading returning scorer as a grad transfer.

And obviously, the SEC has a much higher level of competition than the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference so it was unreasonable to expect Mason to continue to drop 25 a game. However, in his one season at Auburn, Mason did play well.

Alongside K.T. Harrell in the backcourt, Mason averaged a very solid 14.4 points and 2.4 rebounds per game in only 28.9 minutes per game. Mason also shot a career-high 40.2 percent from deep on over four attempts per game.

He also scored 29 points and had four steals against a then-undefeated Kentucky Wildcats squad.

Maybe it’s because he only played one season at Auburn, maybe it’s because the team only won 15 games that year or maybe it’s because he was overshadowed by Harrell but I often feel like Mason is forgotten when it comes to Auburn basketball and that shouldn’t happen.