AUBURN | Last year was a big step forward for Chaney Johnson after transferring from UAH to Auburn.

He gradually gained confidence over the course of the season as Jaylin Williams backup and came on over the final nine games averaging 7.4 points, which was nearly double his average through the first 26 games.

“I thought Chaney had just a great year last year coming up from Division 2 and coming all the way up to high-major basketball,” said AU coach Bruce Pearl. “He played some of his best games on the road. It was an easy transition because you had Jaylin Williams and Johni Broome that sort of carried the load, and so Chaney was sort of able to come off the bench and give us a spark.

“Now, it's his turn. There's actually going to be as big of an adjustment now going, alright, let's do it every night, let's do it potentially as a starter, we'll see.”

Williams finished his career with 141 games played and 114 wins, both Auburn records. Pearl could have sought out a more established forward to replace him, but signed SMU transfer Ja’Heim Hudson instead.

Hudson averaged 5.4 points and 3.4 rebounds in 31 games as a backup forward for the Mustangs.

Johnson will have to compete with Hudson for the starting position, but Pearl essentially bet on Johnson to take the next step during the offseason.

“I want Chaney to relax and play with confidence and have a little bit more fun. He's such a diligent worker that I think if he had a little more joy in the game and relaxed a little bit he'd play even better. I'd take a team full of him though,” said Pearl.

“I mean, we'll see. It's way too early to know who's going to get the ball. We'll spread it around, put him in good positions to be successful. I'm just betting on him because he's so disciplined in his life, he's such an incredibly hard worker. There's always been that - he wasn't highly recruited out of high school, he's a Division 2 player, does he belong? We all believe he does, his teammates and coaches do. He's got to believe it as well.”

For Pearl, it wasn’t just betting on Chaney. It was about having having belief in all of Auburn’s bigs including senior centers Broome and Dylan Cardwell.

“We weren't going to go invest a ton in a guaranteed starter,” said Pearl. “Those guys are all seniors, it's their team. I just didn't want to recruit over them. I'm really happy with Ja'Heim, because you know what he's doing? He's competing with them. He was a five point, 3.5 rebound guy at SMU, but he's a little better, he's a little tougher, he's a little bigger. He brings a level of toughness to us that I really like, he's got some grit to him.

“As a result, we're going to be a little bigger. I think we're going to be a lot older. And I think we've got to be really good defensively, I think that's got to be something that's got to carry the ball for us. We've got to be really hard to score - if we can defend physically without fouling, we can be a real problem defensively.”