The number
22 — Wins in Steven Pearl's first season as head coach, the most by a first-year coach in Auburn program history. The Tigers won the NIT Championship — Auburn's first — then watched eight players walk out the door. Pearl is rebuilding on the move.
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The departures
The production losses are staggering. Auburn lost 61.9 points per game worth of contributors — led by Keyshawn Hall, whose 19.3 PPG and 7.1 RPG made him the engine of everything Pearl ran.
Graduated / Out of eligibility:
- Keyshawn Hall — 19.3 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 2.6 APG. All-SEC Third Team. NIT All-Tournament. Set the Auburn single-season record with 228 free throws made. Invited to the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago.
- KeShawn Murphy — 10.7 PPG, 6.8 RPG. Opted out of the NIT run. Originally transferred from Mississippi State.
Transfer portal:
- Elyjah Freeman (Texas) — 9.2 PPG, 5.2 RPG. Played all 38 games.
- Sebastian Williams-Adams (Vanderbilt) — 7.0 PPG, 3.5 RPG. Set Auburn's freshman record with 47 steals. Publicly announced his return to Auburn, then reversed course 10 days later and entered the portal.
- Filip Jovic (UCLA) — 6.3 PPG, 4.0 RPG. Averaged 13.8 PPG over Auburn's final four NIT games, including 18 points against Nevada. Started all five NIT games after Murphy opted out.
- Kaden Magwood (Murray State) — 3.6 PPG, 1.8 APG. Former top-60 recruit.
- Abdul Bashir (San Francisco) — 2.0 PPG. Was the No. 1 JUCO transfer in the country when he signed. Suffered a season-ending back injury after six games.
- Emeka Opurum (destination TBD) — 3.8 PPG, 2.5 RPG. Missed most of the season with an undisclosed medical condition.
Total production lost: 61.9 PPG, 30.1 RPG, 9.2 APG.
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The arrivals
Pearl attacked the portal with a clear plan: add size, add shooting, add experience.
Transfer portal:
- Bukky Oboye (Santa Clara) — C, 7-1. 7.9 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 1.2 BPG. Shot 77.3% on two-point attempts — best in Division I. Started all 34 games for a 26-9 Santa Clara team that made the NCAA Tournament. Two years of eligibility.
- Owen Freeman (Creighton) — F/C, 6-10. Big Ten Freshman of the Year at Iowa in 2023-24 (10.6 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 1.8 BPG). Averaged 16.7 PPG as a sophomore at Creighton. Suffered a serious knee injury last summer and was limited to 5.0 PPG at Creighton in 2025-26. Reunited with Auburn assistant Matt Gatens, who coached him at Iowa.
- Thomas Dowd (Troy) — F, 6-8. 14.4 PPG, 10.1 RPG, 2.1 APG. All-Sun Belt. 17 double-doubles. From Dothan, Alabama. Chose Auburn over Tennessee, Texas Tech and Vanderbilt.
- Adam Olsen (South Alabama) — F, 6-8. 16.7 PPG, 4.1 RPG. Set the South Alabama single-season record with 102 made three-pointers. Shot 39.5% from deep. Chose Auburn over Kansas. Pearl called him "one of the best 3-point shooters in all of college basketball."
- George Kimble III (Vanderbilt) — G, 6-2. Did not play in 2025-26 while rehabbing a knee injury. At Eastern Kentucky in 2024-25: 18.0 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 3.2 APG, 2.6 SPG. Led the ASUN in steals per game and ranked sixth nationally. Two years of eligibility.
International:
- Narcisse Ngoy (France) — C, 7-0. 10.6 PPG, 11.5 RPG, 2.6 BPG playing professionally for Poitiers Basket 86 in France's second-tier league. Shot 70% from two-point range. Has been playing professionally since age 17.
High school:
- Caleb Williams — SG, 6-5. 4-star, No. 138 nationally. First commitment of the Steven Pearl era.
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The targets
Pearl said at Auburn's AMBUSH alumni tour event in Montgomery that the Tigers are "probably one away from being done."
"Somebody that can combo at the 2 and the 3 is what we're looking at to finish out the roster," Pearl told 247Sports. He struck a similar note with the Auburn Observer: "It's gotta be one that just makes sense, though. We're not gonna waste and spend money on someone that doesn't fit our culture and what we're doing."
Auburn missed on five-star guard Caleb Holt, who committed to Arizona in March despite Auburn being considered the leader.
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The fit
The returning backcourt tells the story. Tahaad Pettiford (15.4 PPG, 3.8 APG) and Kevin Overton (14.1 PPG, NIT Most Outstanding Player) give Pearl a foundation that most rebuilding programs would kill for. Everything Auburn added this offseason was designed to surround them.
The frontcourt is completely new — and completely different from last year. Oboye (7-1) and Ngoy (7-0) give Pearl two legitimate rim protectors. Freeman, when healthy, was one of the best young bigs in the Big Ten. Dowd brings the rebounding Auburn lacked. The 2025-26 Tigers were undersized and outmuscled inside. That shouldn't be the problem in 2026-27.
The shooting upgrade is dramatic. Olsen made 102 threes at South Alabama. Kimble, if his knee holds, shot 35% from deep at Eastern Kentucky and ranked sixth nationally in steals. Pearl's vision is clear: Pettiford drives and creates, and the shooters and lob threats around him make defenses pay.
"He's going to have 3-point shooters to surround with, and he's going to have two lob threats at the rim, which he didn't have this past year," Pearl said at the AMBUSH event.
The NIT Championship matters for culture. Pearl's first team was 7-11 in the SEC and could have folded. Instead they ran the NIT table. That run eased the sting of barely missing the NCAA Tournament and gave Pearl something to build on. Every player on the roster chose Auburn — Pearl was one of his father's primary recruiters before becoming head coach. The difference now is they chose him as the guy running the program, not the assistant helping his father run it. Year 2 will tell us whether that distinction matters.
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