Bruce Pearl has always been one of the better recruiters in the SEC during his time with both Tennessee and Auburn basketball, but over time, the job has gotten significantly more difficult.
The gap between the top of the game and mid-majors has shrunken over the years, and now there is a massive external threat that could do more to hurt the NCAA (and particularly the Power 5) in the form of the NBA’s G-League.
Already, the Auburn Tigers have lost talent like Jalen Green to the G-League’s select team, Ignite. Now, it appears that 5-star 2022 target Jalen Duren could be following suit.
High school and college basketball insider Joe Tipton revealed his final 11 options in a graphic on his Twitter page:
2022 five-star Jalen Duren is down to eleven options. pic.twitter.com/wbTfyvIpe3
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) April 25, 2021
The G-League’s Ignite is not the only professional team that Duren is looking at. The Philadelphia product is also looking at the NBL in Australia (and New Zealand) as an option to make money out of the gates after high school.
In terms of the eight other programs Duren is scoping out besides Auburn basketball–should he choose the collegiate route to get elite coaching and development before a potential NBA run–there is a mix bag of conferences.
Alabama and Kentucky are the other SEC schools in the mix, while Penn State and Michigan represent the Big Ten, Memphis represents the American, Miami represents the ACC, UCLA represents the Pac-12, and Villanova rounds out the bunch from the Big East.
At six-foot-ten and 225 pounds as a junior in high school, Duren profiles to be one of the more NBA-ready players should he see a freshman year in the NCAA. A year under Bruce Pearl could certainly do wonders for his draft stock in the same way Isaac Okoro and Sharife Cooper improved theirs.
Fly War Eagle will provide all the latest updates on his eventual decision.