AUBURN | Auburn was able to secure a big addition from the transfer portal just days before playing in the Final Four last weekend, but there’s still much work to do when it comes to building next year’s team.
There’s still uncertainty over which players will return from this year’s team with the Tigers needing as many as 10 newcomers. Five are already secured.
Auburn signed three high school players in the early period in combo guard Kaden Magwood, shooting guard Simon Walker and forward Sebastian Williams-Adams, and secured a commitment from junior college wing Abdul Bashir in February.
The Tigers signed another versatile wing in UCF transfer Keyshawn Hall last week. Adding more frontcourt players with size will be a big priority over the next two weeks.
“The part that’s really unfortunate is we’re getting penalized for winning,” said assistant coach Steven Pearl. “There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it, we’re way behind in the portal right now. But we wouldn’t trade being here so we can go out there and recruit like the teams that we sent home last week or the week before.
“There’s got to be some kind of change to how this is done. Our situation is way different because we’re losing 10 guys. We’ve got to replace an entire team. Teams that advance in this tournament and have to have complete roster rebuilds like we do are going to be really, really impacted.”
The transfer portal opened March 24 and will close April 22 for players entering. They can sign out of the portal at anytime.
Hall was an important first addition. He led the Big 12 averaging 18.8 points, along with 7.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game last season, earning second-team All-Big 12 honors. He shot .427 from the floor, .354 from 3-point range and .816 from the free throw line.
The Cleveland, Ohio, native played at UNLV as a freshman and George Mason as a sophomore.
“He can play 2 through 5,” said Pearl. “He played 5 when he was 300 pounds a couple of years ago and he’s progressed down to a small forward, power forward. He’s a guy that’s incredibly versatile and can do a lot of things for us on both ends of the floor. You can see what his game has evolved into.
“He’s such a talented scorer and can put the ball on the floor and do things with it that most guys his size are not capable of doing. We’re excited about the prospect of him being in our system and I know he is too. It’s a great start but we’ve got a lot of work to do still.”
