NCAA Basketball: Top 25 college frontcourts for 2018-19

5. Auburn Tigers

Frontcourt players: Austin Wiley, Horace Spencer, Anfernee McLemore, Chuma Okeke, Malik Dunbar, and Danjel Purifoy

One of the most surprisingly good frontcourts last season was the Auburn Tigers, who after losing their two starters due to an NCAA Investigation found great production from the “role players”.

Besides the now-departed DeSean Murray, it was both Okeke and McLemore who stepped up in a big way to help the Tigers make the NCAA Tournament. McLemore’s season-ending injury destroyed the team’s frontcourt when he left at the end of the year. They combined to average 15 ppg and 11 rpg as underclassmen and should produce at the same levels for 2018-19.

The keys to Auburn will be how both Wiley and Purifoy (will miss the first 10 games of next season per the NCAA ruling on infractions) play missing an entire season. Wiley averaged 19.5 ppg, 10.4 rpg and 3.0 bpg per 40 minutes as a freshman after he joined the program midway through the season. Purifoy was a double-digit scorer as a starter as a freshman himself.

Each of them is future NBA players but needs to work on their respective defensive skills. They may be downgrades in that aspect, which is bad since Auburn already was one of the worst team defenses a year ago. If they improved on that and continued developing in their year off, that should frighten the other SEC frontcourts.

The Tigers essentially will have four starting big men for next season thanks to last year’s developments, which ultimately will be a blessing in disguise.