Auburn basketball: Jared Harper’s brother Jalen commits to Tigers

Auburn basketball is keeping it in the family with the transfer portal addition of Jalen Harper, brother of Tigers legend Jalen Harper. The younger Harper comes by way of Shelton State Community College after spending his freshman season at Florida Gulf Coast University.

With the addition of Harper, Bruce Pearl is out of scholarships, unless Allen Flanigan opts to stay in the NBA Draft process. Flanigan is currently impressing at the G League Elite camp, though he didn’t receive an NBA Combine invite and could be returning to the Plains without any NBA traction.

Dylan Cardwell announced his own withdrawal from the NBA Draft process, which means that Auburn basketball may be out of roster spots for the 2022-23 season.

And that just might be okay.

Auburn basketball has all the pieces necessary in 2022

Julian Phillips’ commitment to Tennessee hurt, but it was far from the end of the world for the Tigers moving forward. In 2022-23, Auburn has two of everything as Bruce Pearl pointed out after a recent trip to Israel:

"“I feel like Noah, since I just came back from Israel. I have got at least two of everything at every position, and a little more depth at guard from bringing in Tre (Donaldson) and bringing in Chance (Westry). On the front line we have five (players). We lost two (Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler) and we brought in two (Yohan Traore and Johni Broome).”"

With two full deployable lineups, the Tigers have plenty of riches that were set to come before this offseason, and have since only increased with Pearl’s activity since the end of Auburn’s March Madness run.

The Mableton, Georgia product Jalen Harper adds depth to the backcourt, and he’ll compete with Tre Donaldson for any minutes behind Zep Jasper, K.D. Johnson, and Wendell Green Jr.