While star true freshman Isaac Okoro was out for the second consecutive game, another first-year Tiger was "very encouraging" to Bruce Pearl.

Jaylin Williams had the first substantial playing time of his true freshman campaign Wednesday, logging 16 minutes in Auburn's 65-55 loss to Georgia. His previous high was five minutes in his debut against CSUN early in the season.

Williams was the only Auburn player besides senior Anfernee McLemore to turn in a positive plus/minus in the box score with a plus-4 for the game. Williams pulled down six rebounds, swiped two steals and had an assist.

"He didn’t know that he was even going to play, but he stepped up," senior guard Samir Doughty said of Williams. "He got of key steals, a lot of rebounds. I think he was our second-leading rebounder, and he only played about 16 minutes. That was great."

While he missed his only shot and didn't get into the scoring column, Williams was one of Auburn's top defenders against the Bulldogs, posting a team-high seven defensive stops while on the floor. His rebound rate of 16.7 was also tops on the team, even ahead of senior center Austin Wiley.

"[Williams] just has to get a better feel for the game, get his confidence up," Doughty said. "But he’s going to be a great addition to us if he’s going to play, if coach decides to play him. But I feel like he’s capable of playing with us right now. Once we get him more confidence, he can be an even better player.”

Pearl said the freshman's playing time moving forward will largely be dependent on the production received from the players at the 4 position ahead of Williams — McLemore and Danjel Purifoy. Okoro technically occupies the frontcourt, as well, so he'll be taking some of those minutes when he returns from his hamstring injury.

"How much he can impact our team this season, I think a lot’s going to depend on Anfernee and Danjel and some of those other guys who have been playing ahead of Jaylin," Pearl said.

Pearl sees a spot for Williams in the rotation this season, sure. But what's been most encouraging to Auburn about the strong, rangy, 6-foot-7 freshman is his leap in progress from when he arrived on campus from Brantley County, Ga., to now.

"There were some things in Jaylin’s game that, you know, that he needed to work on," Pearl said. "But you could see in practice and you could see in some of the games, and you certainly saw at Georgia he’s a lot closer to being effective right now than he was a few months ago."

Williams' only shot attempt against Georgia was an airballed triple, and he had two giveaways in the final minute.

But Auburn never wavered in its confidence with Williams, and Pearl knows that even mistakes will be valuable for the freshman's development.

"I think you could see what the future looks like for Jaylin," Pearl said.

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