5 offseason questions for Auburn basketball

The SEC basketball period formally came to a shut Saturday night in San Francisco.

Arkansas was bested by Duke in the Razorbacks’ 2nd consecutive journey to the Elite Eight, meaning Bruce Pearl and Auburn are even now the very last SEC staff to make the Last 4 through their magical operate in 2019.

The Tigers, of course, were being a single of five SEC groups eliminated on the initial weekend of the NCAA tournament, shedding in ugly fashion to 10-seed Miami, 79-61 in the 2nd spherical (the Hurricanes encounter No. 1 seed Kansas on Sunday night, with a trip to the Last 4 on the line). Just after what a lot of referred to as the finest period in the conference’s background, Kentucky, Tennessee and LSU also fell on the 1st weekend to double-digit seeds.

So if Eric Musselman and Arkansas experienced the best match operate in the league, Auburn obtained the most flowers in the typical period. Pearl’s crew set method data for standard-time (27) and convention wins (15), en route to an outright SEC championship.

It was a historic year on the Plains that saw the Tigers earn 19 straight video games, increase to No. 1 in the polls for the very first time at any time, and have two of the very best single-season performances in Auburn lore: Jabari Smith (SEC Freshman of the Yr, consensus All-American and probable No. 1 all round decide) and Walker Kessler (SEC Defensive Participant of the Calendar year, All-American and the most effective shot-blocker university basketball has witnessed in the earlier ten years-moreover).

For Pearl, there’s no offseason. He and his workers hit the highway recruiting less than 24 several hours after losing in Greenville. As magical as Auburn’s 2021-22 team was at instances, it continue to shed four of its final nine games and went 1-2 in the postseason.

There is always perform to be done. Now, that perform is to construct off one more time where Auburn flirted with 30 wins underneath Pearl.

“We have been the winningest system in the SEC in excess of the very last 5 years,” Pearl explained after the loss to Miami. “We’ve gained a few championships in five a long time. I just take excellent pleasure in the regularity of our program’s accomplishment — and I’m completely ready to build it again.”

As the 2021-22 faculty basketball period is set to wrap up around the up coming 7 days, here are five offseason queries that Pearl, his employees and his gamers face for their 2022-23 squad.

