Sooner or later — mostly depending on COVID-19's effect on practices and the basketball season — Babatunde Akingbola is going to get his shot at becoming the next Auburn big man to make a big impact in the SEC.
The rising sophomore contributed just 2.5 minutes per game last season but is expected to contend for a starting role in the frontcourt in 2020-21, after starting power forward Danjel Purifoy, center Austin Wiley and sixth man Anfernee McLemore all graduated.
"I've been putting a lot of work in," Akingbola said last month in an interview on Zach Schumaker's Instagram show. "... People keep saying my sophomore year is going to be my breakout year, but I've been working toward this since my high school years. So this is a chance to show people what I'm made of and what I can really do."
The 6-foot-10 defensive specialist, who can play either power forward or center in Bruce Pearl's lineups, said he realizes the time is now to prove himself, though he'll miss the veteran leaders he spent his freshman season learning from.
More specifically, Akingbola said going against Wiley, who was a heavily underrated player in his eyes, made him better both from an athletic standpoint and in his technical skills.
"I learned a lot guarding him in practice every day," Akingbola said of Wiley. "He was just getting me stronger. We were working out together and practicing together. That kind of showed me what — to my opinion, Austin was a top 3 big man in the league. So with me guarding him, it was helping me to be ready for the next season."
He's not the only Tiger that will be suddenly without an older mentor at his position. Pearl joked earlier this month that when his team travels this season, the staff is going to need some Gerber baby food, along with maybe some milk and cookies. Regardless of whether Pearl adds an experienced transfer player later this summer with Auburn's final scholarship spot, his lineup will be young, possibly the youngest of his tenure on the Plains.
Redshirt junior Jamal Johnson is currently the only upperclassman on the team — and he's a few rungs down in the rotation, so the starting lineup could be all freshmen and sophomores.
Akingbola knows that'll be the common knock against Auburn next season, if it hasn't been already; ESPN's Joe Lunardi has yet to include the Tigers in his 64-team projections for next year through six offseason installments of his bracketology.
But Akingbola doesn't necessarily see the team's youth as a negative. It will be a hurdle at the start, he admitted, but he believes Auburn has the tools to be a contender in the SEC yet again after taking some time to develop.
"We have a lot of pieces," Akingbola said. "I like I said: We're young, but we're still going to do great things."
Until the team can return to Auburn later this month for voluntary workouts, Akingbola said they've been participating in weekly Zoom sessions, checking up on everyone's home workout regimens and making sure players are taking the right precautions to reduce COVID-19 exposure before they're called back to campus.
"... The only thing we need right now is the chemistry (because of COVID-19)," Akingbola said. "Once we get that, we'll be good."
The sample size for Akingbola's skill set and potential really can't include the 2019-20 season, when he appeared in 13 games but scored just once and recorded at least one rebound or block in only six outings. He was as reserve as a reserve freshman big man could be.
Coming out of high school, however, the former 4-star prospect, who grew from 6-foot-8 his senior year to 6-foot-10 upon being measured at Auburn, was a nightmare of a rim protector and overall a long, athletic, stalwart presence on defense — hence the nickname "Stretch."
That's the player Auburn hopes blossoms into a beast in the froncourt his sophomore year and beyond. Akingbola has lofty expectations for himself, too.
"I'm trying to be the best shot-blocker in school history," he said.
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