Auburn basketball deemed team without a true star

Bruce Pearl's Auburn basketball squad was deemed a team without a star by AL.com's Matt Cohen -- who was still able to acknowledge the SEC's tribal chief for its 11-deep roster following an 82-59 statement victory over Ole Miss at the Neville Arena on January 20.

"Before Saturday night, Auburn’s bench already averaged the fifth most points per game of anyone in the nation and the most in the SEC," Cohen prefaced before saying, "It’s an Auburn team without a true star, but 11 solid, reliable contributors who have taken on the balance of this team well."

On the national scale, Cohen is right. There's slight NBA draft buzz for Johni Broome and Jaylin Williams, but these aren't the names in the John Wooden Award conversations. There is a star on AU's basketball roster, though, who owns the top NIL valuation of any student-athlete at Auburn.

Auburn basketball player owns top NIL valuation over any football player

It's Aden Holloway's $288K NIL valuation (h/t On3) that leads all Auburn athletes right now. Behind him is linebacker Eugene Asante, tight end Rivaldo Fairweather, and EDGE Jalen McLeod.

Holloway hasn't put up star-type numbers (10 points on 34/34/81 shooting split, three assists) just yet, but anyone who's watched the six-foot-one combo guard knows he has a star-making performance in him at any time. One day, that 3-point shot won't be able to miss the bottom of the net, and it'll be in a game of high enough importance to ingratiate him into Auburn lore.

The Tigers' depth is why they're one of the nation's top teams -- with the AP Top 25 soon to reflect that, not that it even matters until March -- but they do have an NIL star on their roster; if not an individual standout from a stats perspective just yet.

And let's be real: the way everyone would react if any one of them came into a public place of business in East Central Alabama, there's 11 stars on Pearl's roster.