Auburn basketball: 3 reasons why Tigers could reach Final Four

Reason #2 Auburn basketball could reach Final Four again: Tigers have star power and depth

If you look at last season’s championship Baylor team–and we know Auburn basketball fans got a great look at them when they were stomping AU out this past January–you’ll notice two things.

First, there was an NBA lottery pick in Davion Mitchell that started off with the Tigers. He had transcendent talent, and was eventually drafted with the ninth pick of the 2021 NBA Draft. But Baylor was no one man show.

Far from it, seeing as though Jared Butler put up equally gaudy stats and ended up being selected with the #40 pick of the same draft. Still, this was not a one-two punch.

This was a punch that stung even when the starters were riding the pine. The likes of Matthew Mayer (13 points, six rebounds) and Adam Flagler (19 points, eight rebounds) were able to punish Bruce Pearl’s bunch for the Bears and–along with Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua–scored a third of the points Baylor scored in their 86-70 trouncing of Gonzaga in the title game.

That’s the identity this year’s Tigers could have, with the likes of Jaylin Williams, Zep Jasper, and Devan Cambridge coming off the bench and Walker Kessler and Allen Flanigan as support pieces in a starting lineup featuring one of the 2022 NBA Draft class’ brightest prospects leading the charge.

Expectations for AU are sky-high, and it really shouldn’t be any other way.