It’s not a secret that shooting has been a struggle for Auburn recently.

Since the Final Four season, Auburn has not shot above 32 percent from deep, and last year’s shooting numbers were as ugly as it gets.

Per Synergy, Auburn was in the 12th percentile on jump shots averaging an abysmal 0.88 points per shot and were in the ninth percentile on spot up looks averaging 0.93 points per shot.

So how did Auburn address this issue? The transfer portal.

The crown jewel of Auburn’s portal class was FIU guard Denver Jones, a 37 percent three point shooter in 2022-23.

Jones averaged 1.07 points per shot on jumpers which put him in the 79th percentile, and 1.21 points per shot on spot up looks which ranked him in the 85th percentile.

The shooting is a given with Jones, so Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl is intrigued about a different part of his game.

“Really, really excited about Denver,” Pearl said. “You're going to see him do some things he didn't do. Years past, Denver has been a shooter. He's been a guy who can get to the elbow and pull up. Now, I think in part due to the way coach Damon Davis and our staff have really transformed bodies… You wouldn't recognize Denver Jones if you saw him in the spring, compared to where he is right now. He's put on 15 (pounds), all muscle, and now he's able to get downhill and get to the rim -- which is an element of his game he didn't have before.”

Chad Baker-Mazara is a shooter in every sense of the word. Last season at Northwest Florida State College, he shot 47 percent from deep on 143 attempts.

At San Deigo State two seasons ago, Baker-Mazara shot 39.6 percent on spot up looks which came out to 1.19 points per shot ranking him in the 83rd percentile.

62 percent of those shots were considered "guarded" and on those he shot 43.8 percent which came out to 1.31 points per shot ranking him in the 93rd percentile.

“Chad can play,” Pearl said. “He's got stuff you can't teach.”

Auburn’s work wasn’t solely in the portal as the Tigers also added Aden Holloway, a 5-star point guard that can create his own shot from deep while also possessing the ability to play off the ball and find spot up looks for himself.

With the caliber of shooter that Holloway is, Pearl knows he just has to find ways to get his freshman phenom the ball and let him take care of the rest.

“He can really shoot the ball and he's got great range,” Pearl said. “With the ball in his (Aden's) hands late, the best thing I can do is find a way to get him open and he'll make a shot. And he just wants to get better. He wants to get better. Aden has got some of that 'it'. He's got some special in him.”

In Auburn’s final nine games of the season, it shot 39 percent from deep, and those final few games of the season coincided with Johni Broome starting to consistently shoot threes.

In his final eight games of the season, Broome shot 40 percent from deep on about two attempts per game. That’s not a big sample size, but him simply being a threat from outside the arc opens up the Auburn offense in many ways. Broome having to be respected from deep opens up driving lanes and spreads out Auburn’s offense making it much more fluid.

Broome feels he’ll only be better from deep this season.

“I work out on the perimeter each and every day,” Broome said. “We've got a couple of offenses where I'm on the perimeter as well. I think Coach trusts me, my teammates trust me, my coaches trust me to take those shots. It'll definitely be better this year.”

Shooting has been an issue since Jared Harper and Bryce Brown left campus, and Pearl knows it has to be fixed to seriously contend. He believes it has.

“I've thought, so far this fall, we've shot it better,” Pearl said. “I don't know if it's because we're not defending it as well. But it's something that we definitely need to improve on. And I do think we have the personnel to do it.”