How Auburn basketball revamped its rebuild around Tahaad Pettiford
For the second straight offseason, the Tigers had No. 0 on the front of their minds. But this construction looks and feels a lot different.
On paper, last year’s Auburn basketball roster construction made a lot of sense.
With freshman phenom Tahaad Pettiford being the only returner from the previous season’s Final Four team, the objective was clear: Build a team that fits his play style.
With that in mind, the Tigers added a 4-man in Keyshawn Hall who could score from anywhere on the court an an athletic lob threat that could also operate as a hub at center in KeShawn Murphy — with the rest of the roster being filled out with shooters, athletes and skilled big men, all of which could run the floor.
It seemed like an ideal roster to maximize the talent of Auburn’s star guard. But then Bruce Pearl retired.
And then that 4-man who could score from anywhere showed that was basically all he could do.
And then both Kaden Magwood and Abdul Bashir, two new additions the Tigers banked on to provide quality minutes when Pettiford was off the floor, proved to just not have it at the SEC level.
A team that was made up almost entirely of newcomers relied on two freshmen and a wing that had never played Division I basketball for major minutes.
While there were signs of what could have been — a road win at Florida! — the results mostly reflected the downside of that.
Flash-forward a year. Auburn once again was tasked with building around Pettiford. But, this time, its backcourt option alongside him was solidified in Kevin Overton, one of last year’s newcomers who you could easily argue was Auburn’s best player from February on. This changed the dynamic for Steven Pearl in terms of roster-building.
Now, with Auburn’s roster now finalized with the official signing of Mantas Rubštavičius, let’s dive into why this roster should fare better than the last one that was built around Pettiford.
Pettiford struggled last year… but why?
Let’s just call it how it was: Pettiford’s sophomore season was a disappointment.
After being a passenger his freshman season, Pettiford became the guy on the scouting report. And, while there were highs, the culmination of it all was a season that ended with a 51% true shooting mark and multiple games where he wasn’t much of a factor at all.
There are multiple reasons for this.