What Auburn basketball is getting in SMU transfer Ja'Heim Hudson
A potential glue guy off the bench with two-way traits and a smooth jumper, Hudson should provide the depth Auburn wants up front.
PF Ja’Heim Hudson (Instagram)
Maybe Bruce Pearl and his staff saw something in Ja’Heim Hudson that most power conference teams didn’t.
Two weeks ago, during Auburn’s continued pursuit of another forward in the transfer portal, Hudson said that he had been contacted by a handful of schools since leaving SMU. All but one of the teams specifically named were mid-majors: VCU, Pepperdine, Abilene Christian and Louisiana-Lafayette.
It wasn’t exactly a who’s who of college basketball royalty. But right there, at the top, was the name “Auburn.”
Hudson’s contact from Auburn came before the Tigers reportedly tried to make a big move for Samford star Achor Achor — who was set to visit the Plains but never did. (He later landed at Kansas State.) And it also was well before former 5-star and Texas transfer Dillon Mitchell visited Auburn earlier this week.
Auburn got the ball rolling with Hudson early, and things were pointing in a positive direction for the Tigers after they brought him in for a visit this week, right after Mitchell. When Mitchell picked Cincinnati on Friday afternoon, the attention shifted toward Hudson.
Several hours later, Hudson committed and signed with Auburn, officially becoming the second transfer portal pickup on a roster that is bringing back plenty of experience and also adding a couple of blue-chip true freshmen.
Hudson is a native of Hinesville, Ga. — the hometown of former Auburn-turned-Baylor point guard Davion Mitchell. However, he played most of his high school basketball at powerhouse program Wheeler in Marietta, where he was a first-team all-state selection on back-to-back Georgia championship teams.
As a 3-star recruit coming out of high school, he stayed close to home by picking Georgia State. He started a dozen games as a freshman for a Panthers team that caught fire and made it to the 2022 NCAA Tournament. During the following season, Hudson averaged 10.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, notching 14 games in double figures. (He had eight points and 11 rebounds in a road game at Auburn.)
Hudson then transferred to SMU, where his former head coach had taken over after his freshman season. He came off the bench for the Mustangs, averaging 5.4 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. But he started SMU’s finale against Indiana State in the NIT, where he scored 21 points on 7-8 shooting — including a perfect 3-3 from deep.
Those season-long numbers are unlikely to wow a lot of people, especially when they’re compared to what Achor did as Samford’s best player or what Mitchell did in a breakout second season at Texas in the Big 12. To some, landing Hudson will be viewed as underwhelming because of that.
However, for an Auburn team looking first and foremost to add depth in a frontcourt that returns All-American center Johni Broome, top-tier backup Dylan Cardwell and the late season-surging Chaney Johnson, Hudson fits a lot of the profile of what the Tigers wanted out of the portal this offseason.
“Talking to the last three coaches Ja’Heim has played for — in high school, at Georgia State and at SMU — I respect all three of those coaches and all three said he was one of their favorites,” Pearl said in a statement on Friday night. “He is a great person, great worker and great teammate. Stepping up another level, he brings great depth to our front line and has two years of eligibility remaining. He will definitely make an impact on our program and bring another level of toughness to our team.”
(Full disclosure: It’s unclear how Hudson would have two seasons of eligibility remaining, considering he played almost every game in three straight campaigns and wasn’t around for the COVID waiver era. Stay tuned for more info there.)
PF Ja’Heim Hudson (Instagram)
Hudson is indeed stepping up another level, going from a bench forward on an SMU team that fell short of the NCAA Tournament out of the AAC this past season to what will likely be a bench forward role on an Auburn team gunning for an SEC title.
That makes him a unique transfer for the Pearl Era. Other mid-major transfers, such as Denver Jones and new point guard JP Pegues, were clear-cut stars at their previous programs. Even players who stepped up a level, like Johnson and Chad Baker-Mazara, were the same way.
If you go back to transfers who weren’t starters before they came to Auburn, like Samir Doughty and Jamal Johnson, those guys still played more than half of the available minutes at their former schools. Hudson was at 35.5% at SMU last season.
The best way to describe Hudson’s addition to the Auburn roster is fit over stats. His box scores don’t read like a player that the Tigers would normally prioritize in the transfer portal.
But the style of basketball that he puts out on film does.