Auburn basketball: Tigers offer two AAU teammates

Two high school underclassmen and AAU teammates could be Auburn bound in the future.

Auburn basketball head coach Bruce Pearl clearly isn’t afraid to pursue top high school talent and he’s willing to scour the entire country to find it. From Texas and Wisconsin to Connecticut and Arizona, Pearl is dedicated to finding the Auburn stars of tomorrow.

Auburn’s most recent recruiting trip took Pearl’s staff to the Northeast where the Tigers have extended scholarship offers to some of the area’s best players.

First off, Auburn offered five-star forward Akil Watson. Watson, a 6-foot-7 forward in the class of 2023, is a rising sophomore at Don Bosco high school in Ramsey, New Jersey. However, Watson plays his AAU ball for New York Lightning.

While he’s still early in his high school career, Watson is already seen as a transformational talent. With offers from St. Johns, Nebraska and Seton Hall already under his belt, Watson is ESPN’s No. 11 player in the class.

However, Watson wasn’t the only New York Lightning player to get an offer from the Tigers. Class of 2022 prospect Sadiku Ayo. The rising junior from New York isn’t as highly touted as his AAU teammate but he has shown enough to impress Auburn.

Like Watson, the 6-foot-6 wing has previously picked up offers from Nebraska, Seton Hall and St. Johns. Ayo plays his high school basketball at the Our Savior Lutheran School in the Bronx.

https://twitter.com/ayo_sadiku/status/1284614649330257920

While Auburn has offered scholarships to plenty of players in the class of 2022 and beyond, none have committed to the Tigers — not unusual considering they are all high school juniors or younger.

Still, seeing Pearl’s willingness to go after blue-chip recruits, especially in the states outside of Auburn’s usual pipeline, show that the Tigers’ head coach is serious about making Auburn a contender year in and year out for as long as he’s there. With Pearl being a native of Massachusetts, his connection to the Northeast U.S. could help the Tigers land these two recruits in the future.

Although Auburn missed out on top recruits Jalen Green, Kai Sotto and Jonathan Kuminga in the class of 2020, the fact that Auburn was in the running for these recruits is something that couldn’t be said just a few years ago.

Plus, Auburn didn’t lose those recruits to another school as all three players decided to skip college basketball and sign with the NBA G-League.

And while Auburn missed out on the aforementioned trio and don’t have any commitments for the class of 2021 and later, the Tigers still possess an incredible incoming recruiting class for 2020.

Headlined by five-star point guard Sharife Cooper, Auburn’s 2020 recruiting class is ranked No. 9 in the country by 247Sports.