What Auburn basketball is getting in D-II transfer Elyjah Freeman
The Tigers beat out several big-name programs for an explosive young wing who stuffed the stat sheets in a breakout campaign.
AUBURN — Calling Elyjah Freeman a “late bloomer” might be an understatement.
That’s what Bruce Pearl said Freeman was on Sunday morning, after the former Division II star officially signed with Auburn basketball — becoming the Tigers’ ninth new roster addition and their sixth transfer pickup of the offseason.
“Elyjah Freeman is your classic late bloomer,” Pearl said in a statement. “He was under recruited out of high school, goes to Lincoln Memorial and just does a tremendous job. One of the best offensive players in all of Division II basketball as a freshman, Elyjah is an incredibly hard worker, dedicated and driven.”
Every step of Freeman’s journey toward becoming an SEC basketball player has been a fascinating one. It’s an unorthodox climb through the ranks.
According to NBA Draft analyst Jonathan Givony, the 6-foot-8 Freeman was just 5-foot-8 when he was an eighth grader. He grew to 6-foot-2 a year later and was 6-foot-6 by the time he was in the 11th grade.
But, at that point, Freeman was still splitting time between basketball and his “first love” of baseball. A coach convinced the growing Freeman to fully commit to the hardwood.
Once he did, he started to take the high school ranks in the Palm Beach area of Florida by storm. A late arrival to the scouting hype, Freeman managed to become a McDonald’s All-American nominee as a senior at Wellington High School.
Freeman didn’t end up at a Division I college, though. He chose Division II powerhouse Lincoln Memorial, located in East Tennessee. And his time with the highly ranked Railsplitters turned out to be just what he needed to see his stock explode.
In his one and only season in Division II, Freeman averaged 18.9 points, 8.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.7 steals per game. He show 58.7% from the floor, 45.6% from 3-point range and 80.7% from the free-throw line.
Freeman was an extremely high-volume scorer for LMU, scoring 11 or more points in all but two of his 29 games as a starter. He had 14 different 20-point games, and he went back-to-back with 30-point outings twice — including the Railsplitters’ final two matchups of the season.
Through all that, he still had a true shooting percentage of 68%. In the 13 games in which he shot more than his average of 11 per game, Freeman hit more than 50% of his attempts 10 times.
While he might have slipped under the radar of big-name programs a year ago, that wasn’t going to happen again. Freeman was targeted in the transfer portal by the likes of Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee — even taking a visit to the latter program after spending a weekend in Auburn.
But Auburn was the one that would ultimately get his signature. He’ll be a part of a roster overhaul for the defending SEC champions, which is telling because of where he ultimately wants to end up.
“His long-term goal is to play in the NBA,” Givony said recently. “And he’s putting himself in position to be tracked by scouts over the next few years.”
Freeman was listed at 6-foot-8 at Lincoln Memorial, yet his weight wasn’t given. When you watch him on film, he has the build more of the small forward/3 type that Auburn has had over the years — a position that is currently set to lose Chad Baker-Mazara to a transfer.
It’s also worth noting that, while the 6-foot-7 Keyshawn Hall was listed as a “forward” when he signed with Auburn, Freeman was called a “guard/forward.”
“He also has the size of a forward, but he will play a big guard position for Auburn,” Pearl said in his statement.
Making the jump from Division II ball to the SEC is a massive one, as former two-year success story Chaney Johnson can attest.
But there are plenty of reasons why Auburn was far from the only elite high-major program that was in the running for Freeman — and there are plenty of reasons why he could make an instant impact for a new-look Tigers team next season.
As we have done for the other five transfer additions for Auburn basketball this offseason, here is our breakdown of Freeman’s game, featuring 50-plus clips from his standout season at Lincoln Memorial. Each section here starts with a supercut that highlights a particular part of his game.
And we’ll start with a key attribute that has become a running theme with several of the newest Tigers in this roster renovation project.