NCAA Basketball: Auburn, Vols, LSU, and UNC in play for 5-star F Jabari Smith

Auburn Tigers

It’s been a tough past few days for the program on the recruiting trail. Last Saturday, the Tigers were not only a finalist for five-star class of 2021 point guard JD Davison but viewed by some as the favorite at one point. Instead, he picked rival Alabama, which could have huge consequences for Smith’s recruitment.

That’s because Auburn can’t use the selling point of playing both Davison and Smith together. The odds are very high that current five-star freshman point guard Sharife Cooper will be going to the 2021 NBA Draft, so that hypothetical pairing won’t work since a decision is coming before the start of the season.

That doesn’t mean that Coach Bruce Pearl doesn’t have plenty to offer for Smith. Without a star point guard, the team would have to play through its bigs such as Smith and JT Thor. This is a young team with no seniors and outside of sharpshooter Devan Cambridge, there’s no clear guy on the roster that can scorer.

If Smith is most concerned with improving his NBA Draft stock, he can come in and be the go-to scorer on offense and compete with the likes of Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, and other good frontcourts. That’s better than being on a loaded frontcourt and having to split your time on the court.

Yet Smith alone isn’t good enough to take the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament. And as we’ve seen before, having a couple of big performances in March can be just as good for one’s stock. With limited roster space, it’ll be hard for the program to add other recruits in the 2021 class to make the best compelling case.

I would say that Auburn goes 0-2 in the five-star sweepstakes this month.