Desi Sills won't be an Auburn Tiger. So where does Bruce Pearl's roster go from here?

The former Arkansas standout is heading elsewhere due to non-basketball reasons. The loss stings the Tigers, but they're equipped to handle it well.

(Shanna Lockwood/Auburn Athletics)

The fit was perfect.

Desi Sills’ final months at Arkansas came with a wildly varying role — a former starter who would get little to no minutes one game, then play a massive amount the next, then back to barely anything again.

Sills spent three seasons for his home state program, developing a reputation as a hard-nosed on-ball defender and an inside-out combo guard who could get hot at any moment. His SEC experience and perimeter defense were two areas Auburn didn’t have a lot of in the backcourt last season.

It also didn’t hurt that several of his best games as a Razorback came against Bruce Pearl’s Tigers.

Last month, Sills signed with Auburn as a transfer who had two years of eligibility remaining. Thanks to the NCAA’s new one-time immediate transfer eligibility rule — which received the final clearance for SEC-to-SEC moves by the conference last week — Sills would be able to contribute in the 2021-22 season for the Tigers without sitting out.

That is n…