SEC Basketball: 2024 offseason grades for each team

Auburn Tigers - Grade: B+

Compared to the rest of the conference, Auburn was one of the few SEC teams this offseason that didn’t have a lot of roster movement. The Tigers only lost three players to the transfer portal, one starter in Aden Holloway, and a couple of bench players. 

Bruce Pearl and Auburn added three players from the portal. The two biggest names were Miles Kelly from Georgia Tech and JP Pegues from Furman. Kelly spent the past two seasons at Tech as the only reliable scoring threat. He averaged nearly 14 points per game this past season while making just under 37 percent from the floor. Pegues, who averaged more than 18 points per game this past season, is best known for his game-winning shot to upset Virginia in the tournament two seasons ago.  

Auburn has a solid core of experienced players to build a team around. The clear leader should once again be Johni Broome, one of the best players in the country. Broome averaged 16.5 points and 8.5 rebounds last season, leading the team in both of those categories by a healthy margin. And Chad Baker-Mazara and Denver Jones should prove to be key pieces in another successful season for the Tigers. 

There weren’t many issues that Pearl and the Tigers needed to address this offseason. They added some more scoring from players who have multiple years of experience as high producers for their respective teams. The only true concern is whether those numbers will hold up when they aren’t the number one option on a team. Both Miles Kelly and JP Pegues are good basketball players and solid pickups, but taking a secondary role on a team after being the leader for the past couple of seasons isn’t always a recipe for success.