The Auburn basketball team is at its best when two towers are rim-running on both sides of the court. Just as Bruce Pearl had from 2022-2025, Steven Pearl now has a one-two punch in his frontcourt that could make the Tigers a contender.
Perhaps an SEC Championship and/or a Final Four again if enough breaks right.
Steven acknowledged the impact that 2026 second-round NBA draft pick and international transfer center Narcisse Ngoy and fellow transfer big man Bukky Oboye could have in tandem.
“Narcisse and Bukky, when they play with that motor and that energy, they change the trajectory of our team,” Pearl said.
It's not likely that both Ngoy and Oboye will play the number of minutes together on the court that Johni Broome and Dylan Cardwell played. Both project as more traditional centers, while Broome brought a floor-spacing element in the mid-range and even at the three-point line. Former Creighton and Iowa big man Owen Freeman's shooting should get him on the floor as the starter.
Take a look at the team photo, though, and scan the middle of the upper row. There are two clear guys with NBA size.
Your 2026-27 Auburn Tigers 🐅 pic.twitter.com/ZwuPeCeiE4
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) October 8, 2026
College basketball is increasingly getting older, with international transfers dominating the game. Michigan just won it all with Aday Mara and Malick Kordel.
Pearl is playing ball with Ngoy.
Steven Pearl is in better shape with the 2026-27 roster
Steven was the architect for the 2025-26 roster. Bruce handed that team off to Steven with a strange leadership transfer right before the season, which resulted in a completely disjointed effort all season.
Even though Auburn struggled, the Tigers were still within relative striking distance of the NCAA Tournament.
This season, Steven has a roster that's been expertly built. There's backcourt shooting on the perimeter with Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin, and two legitimate anchors in the paint. Those are both traits of the successful Bruce teams throughout various rosters in the last decade.
The results should be better.
Auburn athletics needs that to be the case with football going nowhere fast again, barring a miraculous three-week stretch after the bye week.
Luckily, the beacon of light in major revenue athletics in the post-COVID era, Tigers men's hoops, should be at its Bruce-era highs soon. God willing.
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