Top eight emerging

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AUBURN, Ala. | Three weeks into preseason practice, Bruce Pearl has a good idea about the top eight players in his rotation.

At the end of Tuesday's practice, Pearl had guards Kareem Canty, Tahj Shamsid-Deen, TJ Dunans, TJ Lang and Bryce Brown along with forwards Cinmeon Bowers, Tyler Harris and Horace Spencer on the Blue team scrimmaging against an Orange team that consisted of walk-ons and a couple of freshmen.

That top eight, however, still has a lot of work to do.

"I'd say today we saw the making of our top eight players right now if we had to go," Pearl said. "My scout team, they were down 11, 50-39. UAB and Colorado are a lot better than our scout team."

Much of Auburn's practices this week have centered on full court pressure - applying it and breaking the press.

"What that does is make practice really sloppy," Pearl said. "Today, we got pressed. Not hard, but just enough to have to score against it. What happens is you attack the pressure, break the pressure and then you never get in the offense. I got it all the way up in the low 30's before we had to run a play. I hope they learned through that lesson about taking better care of the basketball.

"We played hard, aggressive, it was fast, a great day conditioning-wise. We have seven new players out there and I was more upset with my returning players because my returning players know how to guard, they know how to do what they're supposed to do, and I need them to lead. I got to get our returning players to be more vocal like Tahj Shamsid-Deen, who makes everybody better."

One of the biggest reasons the Orange team was able to hang with the Blue team was the play of true freshman Danjel Purifoy, who Pearl singled out as the most improved player through the first three weeks of drills.

Purifoy is still waiting for a ruling on his eligibility this season from the NCAA Clearinghouse.

"It didn't take a rocket scientist to see what Danjel Purifoy is capable of doing," Pearl said. "Today he played on the scout team and he was terrific."

Senior Jordon Granger sat out of Tuesday's practice for what Pearl described as concussion symptoms.

Auburn will hold its second annual Pearl Jam Thursday night from 7-9 p.m. CT. The first 1,000 students receive free pizza while the first 500 fans receive a free jar of Pearl jam.

MORE FROM PEARL

On team leaders emerging…

"I think leadership is something that has to sort of evolve. I was pleased with the way Tahj communicated out there. It's so early that I have to let the leadership evolve. I don't see this team being like last year's team when it became pretty clear that it was KT and everybody else at the end of the year. This team will be much more balanced and this team will look a lot more like my team's in the past."

On if it's tough developing leadership with so many transfers…

"Last year, in order to rebuild a disastrous roster, we had four transfers. Two of them were seniors and one that didn't play last year, Kareem Canty. This year, we add to that three transfers. In my classes coming up we don't have any. As a result, it's very, very new. The great thing about this team is they get along really well. This team is getting along better than last year's team all across the board, which gives me some hope.

"You'd like to let it be natural and let those leaders evolve. As we get closer to the season I'm going to have to force some of the upperclassmen to be more vocal and lead. I have never won a championship that didn't have great leadership from within. Keep in mind, I've only had one losing season in my career. I've had years we've won 20-plus games and we didn't have very good leadership and didn't win championships. This is in our third week so we still have some time."

On Cinmeon Bowers ball handling…

"Right now, he has a positive assist-turnover ratio in our practices. The problem with Cim's turnovers is they're so glaring, one looks like six and they're not, it's one. He's getting there."

On Bryce Brown and his true freshmen…

"It's true, our young guys are freshmen. Bryce Brown can really shoot the ball but he is a freshman and he makes mistakes. You have to take the good with the bad and the ugly."

On his outfit for this year's Pearl Jam…

"Well, last year we came out as Coach Malzahn and that was fun. I think I might let a little more of the attention be shining on our players this year."

More preseason basketball coverage…

Better than ever - Tahj Shamsid-Deen feature

Settling right in - Tyler Harris feature

Thin spin - Cinmeon Bowers feature

Making progress - Second scrimmage update

Counting on Canty - Kareem Canty feature

Tahj, newcomers shine - First scrimmage update

One month away - First scrimmage analysis

Newcomers impress - Practice update