Noting areas of concern for Auburn basketball in 2024-25. Spoiler alert: There aren’t many

AUBURN — It’s no secret what’s expected from Auburn basketball next season.

The Tigers, coming off a campaign in which they won 26 games by double digits, are anticipated to fight for another SEC title in 2024-25 − whether that be of the regular-season or tournament variety. Maybe even both. Looking bigger, fans are expecting a trip to, at the very least, the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, a place Auburn hasn’t been since it shot its way to the Final Four in 2019.

That’s the nature of the business when the Tigers were as good as they were last year, are returning the majority of their contributors, including All-American center Johni Broome, and have added at least a couple of impact transfers in point guard JP Pegues (Furman) and wing Miles Kelly (Georgia Tech). That’s all without mentioning five-star freshman Tahaad Pettiford.

Auburn isn’t without faults, though; there isn’t a team in the country safe from falling short of exceptions.

Here are three areas of concern for the Tigers heading into next season:

FOOTBALL: Questions for Auburn’s transformed secondary after four NFL departures

HOOPS: How positional versatility, fearless 3-point range should be strengths for Auburn

Jaylin Williams is no easy player to replace

Want to know how valuable of a piece All-SEC forward Jaylin Williams was last season? Go back and take a look at coach Bruce Pearl’s face after Williams sustained what, at the time, was believed to be a serious knee injury against Kentucky in February.

Williams, who has now run out of eligibility, ended up missing just one game. His importance was on display all season long, oftentimes proving to be the X-factor. In wins, Williams averaged 13.9 points while hitting 63.2% of his shots, including a 47.8% rate from beyond the 3-point arc. In losses? Those numbers were 7.6, 39.1% and 10.5%, respectively.

The Tigers will lean on Chaney Johnson, an Alabama-Huntsville transfer heading into his second season at Auburn, to primarily replace Williams at power…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/noting-areas-concern-auburn-basketball-134724695.html

Author : The Montgomery Advertiser

Publish date : 2024-06-17 13:47:24

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