Bruce Pearl and Auburn have made a living off of small, undersized point guards. Sharife Cooper is listed at 6-foot-1, J’Von McCormick was six feet tall and Jared Harper was listed at 5-11.
Next in line is Wendell Green Jr., the transfer point guard from Eastern Kentucky. He is listed at 5-11.
A 3-star recruit out of La Lumiere before attending Eastern Kentucky, Green arrives at Auburn with something to prove.
"Wendell's got a chip on his shoulder,” Pearl said. “Wendell's coming in from Eastern Kentucky. He played at La Lumiere, he played at Detroit Country Day. He played at some pretty good AAU programs. But he's 5’10”, maybe 5’11”. So he's always been that — like Jared — questioned, 'Are you big enough?' We're going to find out. But I like him."
Green, along with center Walker Kessler, arrived on Auburn’s campus May 19th. The team began summer workouts and practices last week. Zep Jasper, Jabari Smith and others haven’t yet arrived.
While Green is new to Auburn, he’s not new to Pearl. Back when Green was in high school, Pearl was on a recruiting visit to watch Cooper play. Still, another small point guard caught his eye. It was Green and La Lumiere.
“The only behind the scenes story I can tell you is with Wendell was a couple years ago I was out in West Virginia to see Sharife,” Pearl said. “I called Steven [Pearl] like, ‘There’s this little kid from La Lumiere and he’s out there killing it. Who is this guy?’ And Steven hits me back and says, ‘Well that’s Wendell Green. He’s probably ranked as a mid-major player.’
“Well I said, ‘He ain’t playing like a mid-major player right now.’ I wasn’t looking for a point guard because we already had Sharife. So, I got my chance to lay eyes on Wendell a little bit and got a chance to see his body and see his toughness a little bit.”
Green landed at Eastern Kentucky where he started in 25 of the team’s 29 games. Green averaged 15.8 points, five assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game. Green shot 40% from the floor and 36% from downtown. Green was named the Ohio-Valley Conference Freshman of the Week five times and was named to the conference’s all-tournament team.
He was also one of only two freshmen — the other being Gonzaga’s Jalen Suggs — in the entire country to have 400 points and 100 assists.
"I know nothing is going to be given to me," Green said to Jeffrey Lee of AuburnSports.com when he signed. "I just want to come in day one and prove myself and hopefully have a chance to start."
Arriving early gives Green some extra time, but he’ll have to compete against Jasper, who’s got three years of experience at College of Charleston.
Green kept it simple in the video Auburn basketball posted of him moving in.
"Happy to be here. Ready to get to work,” Green said.
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