Tahaad Pettiford is back. His Year 2 ceiling at Auburn is sky-high.

The point guard phenom will return for a sophomore season. The numbers — and the Tigers' new-look roster — scream massive potential.

(Steven Leonard/Auburn Tigers)

AUBURN — The NBA called Haad, but he wasn’t quite ready to answer.

The biggest and longest-awaited piece of news for Auburn basketball was delivered on Wednesday, as Tahaad Pettiford announced that he would withdraw from the 2025 NBA Draft and return to the Tigers for another season.

Pettiford practically went through the full scope of the pre-draft process, declaring a couple of days after Auburn’s best-ever season ended at the Final Four. After participating in the NBA Draft combine in Chicago and working out for several individual teams, Pettiford had until 11 p.m. CT to make his stay-or-go decision.

Opinions were split on Pettiford over the past month, with NBA Draft analysts projecting him as a borderline late first-round pick or early second-round pick. Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl, as per his usual stance, said that Pettiford should go to the league if he was going to be a first-rounder with a guaranteed contract in hand.

Instead, Pettiford will return to Auburn as the lone player from an outright SEC championship squad that went all-in on experience last season. After coming off the bench as a 5-star freshman phenom surrounded by battle-tested veterans, Pettiford will undoubtedly be thrust into the position of being a team leader as a sophomore.

“He's going to have to play an expanded role, which I know is something that is exciting to him and probably exciting to our fan base, too — because we'll get to see more of him,” Pearl said last week. “He'll be a starter. There will be more on him.”

If his freshman campaign was any indication, Pettiford is ready to take that on.

Last season, Pettiford was third on the team in scoring and first in assists, despite only playing the sixth-most minutes per game. His lone start was due to an injury absence for starter Denver Jones. He played 30-plus minutes in just four games.

In terms of per-40 minutes stats, Pettiford was actually second in scoring for Auburn, behind National Player of the Year winner Johni Broome, at 20.2 points. His assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.82 matched Jones for a deadly efficient Auburn offense, and his usage rate was second only to Jones at 25.9%. He shot 36.6% from 3-point range on an even five attempts per game.

Simply put, Pettiford was a sixth man that showed a superstar ceiling. He had back-to-back 20-point games in the second round and the Sweet 16 of his first NCAA Tournament. He was a no-brainer pick to be on the All-Region team after Auburn punched its ticket to the Final Four in Atlanta.

Pettiford’s first collegiate game away from home was a 21-point outburst in a comeback win over Houston, the nation’s toughest defense. He averaged double-digits in the Maui Invitational. He also had 20-point performances in true road games at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium and Kentucky’s Rupp Arena.

The Jersey City native was a big-game hunter who naturally and instantly fit into a team of ultra-experienced college players that fought through a brutal schedule to win trophies and make history. Now he’ll get to do more as the proven commodity on a brand-new roster that still has its sights set on competing for championships.

And, as recent history shows us, Auburn getting Pettiford back is a luxury that most teams won’t ever have.