How Auburn basketball recruited its transfer-heavy Final Four roster

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Rick Pitino, John Calipari and even J.J. Watt sound off on the transfer portal opening during the NCAA Tournament.

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Auburn’s roster is composed of players from mid-major, junior college and Division II schools, with only one five-star recruit and two top-100 high school prospects.The coaching staff prioritizes finding players who fit the team’s needs and are not afraid of competition, rather than focusing solely on highly-ranked recruits.Auburn’s success stems from identifying undervalued players like Miles Kelly and Denver Jones, who thrived when surrounded by more talent and given defined roles.

AUBURN — Maybe Bruce Pearl had a point.

Ahead of Auburn basketball’s 70-64 victory over 2-seed Michigan State in the Elite Eight, the Tigers’ coach said his team, the 2025 NCAA Tournament’s top overall seed, was the underdog.

“Most of our guys are guys that were mid-majors or junior college or Division II,” Pearl said. “I’m not going to let Michigan State play the underdog card, even though we’re No. 1 seed and they’re No. 2 seed. No, they’re Michigan State. They’re Kansas, they’re Duke, they’re North Carolina. And we’re Auburn. We know our place.”

Auburn was a 5.5-point favorite heading into Sunday’s contest. That prediction proved accurate. But Pearl was right in one sense.

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His team, which plays 1-seed Florida in the program’s second-ever Final Four appearance on Saturday (5:09 p.m. CT, CBS), isn’t littered with blue-chips. The Tigers have a single five-star recruit. Only two members of their roster were top-100 high school prospects.

It’s not like Duke or Houston, which each have at least six former top-100 recruits in their programs. Auburn’s build-out isn’t necessarily intentional, but there’s a method to it.

“We feel like a really good job of doing it with different groups of kids, players,” Auburn associate head coach Steven…

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Publish date : 2025-04-02 13:38:00

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