WETUMPKA | Experience, talent and depth.

Auburn appears to have it all heading into Bruce Pearl’s fifth season with the return of a number key players plus some talented additions.

“I really like where we are 1-10, I really do,” Pearl said. “I feel like we won’t drop off when we go to the bench. “We’re going to have a little bit more traditional size. We won’t have to play small-ball as much. But I never minded playing small-ball because of the quickness factor and the matchups.”

The Tigers return six of their top players from last season including all-conference guards Bryce Brown and Jared Harper, forward Chuma Okeke, big men Anfernee McLemore and Horace Spencer and backup guard Malik Dunbar.

Forward Danjel Purifoy and 6-foot-11 center Austin Wiley return from suspensions, VCU transfer Samir Doughty is eligible after sitting out last season and junior college transfer J’Von McCormick is scheduled to arrive for the start of classes in August.

The key for Auburn’s chances to repeat as SEC regular season champions may come down to how well this team plays together and how it deals with what Pearl predicts will be a tougher conference slate.

“Chemistry is always important,” Pearl said. “I really like this team. I really like how hard they’re working together. I’m excited about it. The league got eight in last year and it was the best I’ve seen the league in 25 years. It will be better this year. That’s just the progress the league is making.

“While we could have a better team — and I’ve told our players that this team has a higher ceiling than last year’s team — this league is going to give us all we want.”

Pearl will be putting his Tigers through workouts and extended practice sessions through the rest of the summer.

“Workouts are going good,” he said. “The NCAA made some adjustments in the rules. We still have our eight hours in the offseason. Before it was just two hours of basketball instruction and six hours of everything else, and now they’re giving us four hours of basketball instruction. That lets us go two hours a couple of days a week and really get into some good, meaningful practices. It lets the players get a little jumpstart.

“I think it’s safer because it gets us in better shape and you don’t have to rush as much in the fall. We’re working on skills, we’re working on ball handling, we’re working on shooting. We’re working on the different fundamentals and some team things. And one thing we’ll never get away from is the weight room. We’ll never get away from in the offseason of making sure we’re getting bigger and stronger and faster.”