16. Texas A&M Aggies
19. Indiana Hoosiers
22. Texas Longhorns
25. Miami Hurricanes
28. BYU Cougars
29. Maryland Terps
31. UCLA Bruins
32. Oregon Ducks
34. Florida Gators
35. Ole Miss
36. USC Trojans
39. Mississippi State Bulldogs
41. Memphis Tigers
42. McNeese Cowboys
45. VCU Rams
46. Dayton Flyers
47. St Mary’s Gaels
49. UCF Knights
52. Clemson Tigers
53. New Mexico Lobos
58. SMU Mustangs
60. Nevada Wolfpack
61. TCU Horned Frogs
63. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
65. Syracuse Orange
68. Iowa Hawkeyes
70. Butler Bulldogs
71. Princeton Tigers
74. Oklahoma Sooners
75. West Virginia Mountaineers
76. Georgia Bulldogs
77. UAB Blazers
80. Missouri Tigers
Here’s where our TCH analysts have the Tigers ranked:
| Steven | Maxwell | Kam | Cody |
| 11 | 18 | 13 | 12 |
Bruce Pearl, man. The Tigers, under Pearl, have made five of the last six NCAA tournaments, and would’ve made it in 2020 had the global pandemic not cancelled the NCAA tournament. Last year’s Auburn team finished the season ranked 4th in KenPom despite a first round exit, and this year’s team is ranked third in KenPom. While this team is a surefire top 12 team in the preseason in my opinion, there are plenty of skeptics that think this team has real bottom out potential. Most of that has to do with questionable guard play. The primary guard is Denver Jones, a redshirt senior who averaged 9.1 points per game last season. However, after transferring from FIU, Jones got his sea legs under him during the second half of the season. In the final 15 games of Auburn’s season, Jones averaged 11.7 points per game, all of which were SEC games except the first round loss to Yale. Additionally, there’s Chad Baker-Mazara, who averaged 12.1 points himself the final 14 games of last season. Given how both of these guards ended the season, the expectation is that each should be much more comfortable to start the year. Additionally, the primary playmaker will be JP Pegues, a Furman transfer who averaged 18.4 points and 4.8 assists per game. Pegues scored 20+ points in 15 games last season, including a 21 point game against SEC foe, Arkansas. Pegues averaged 25.6 points per game in his final seven games last season. It should be reiterated that all of these guards played their best at the conclusion of the season, more specifically, in February and March.
Off the bench is former Georgia Tech guard, Miles Kelly. Kelly led Georgia Tech in scoring each of the last two seasons and may end up being the best guard on this team by season’s end. Additionally, the entire Center Hub team would be remised to fail to acknowledge Johni Broome, a projected AP preseason All-American First Team player. Broome is expected to be one of the three best big men in college basketball, along with Kansas’ Hunter Dickinson and Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner. Both Broome and Kelly are likely the two best NBA prospects on this roster. Broome has legit National Player of the Year potential, especially if Auburn lives up to their current expectations. With Broome anchoring the defense, Auburn’s defense was #1 in the nation in opponent’s two point percentage and effective field goal percentage last season.
Additionally, 61.2% of Auburn’s made field goals were assisted last season, which was good for 12th in the nation. This year, with a playmaker like Pegues, that number should increase further. Bruce Pearl also has a way of building a roster. Not only does he rely on defense, but he takes all-around guys who can play into a role and can do a little bit of everything. Each player on this team can sort of be considered “a jack of all trades but a master of none”. Last year, Pearl’s team shot 35.2% from three, which is above average but not exceptional. Expect that percentage to be similar this year. Additionally, while the team assists on a good bit of baskets, nobody on last year’s roster averaged more than 3.2 assists per game. Additionally, Pearl almost virtually stopped bringing in multiple freshman each year and moreso relies on older transfers. The only freshman on this roster is Tahaad Pettiford, a 4 star recruit. The top seven guys in this rotation are all seniors or 5th year guys, and most of them have continuity playing together.
Finally, Pearl also does an excellent job of not overextending his players during the season. No player on his roster last year played more than 900 minutes. In fact, Broome led the team in total minutes last year at 868. Coach Pearl does an excellent job at playing a deep bench and not playing anybody over 25 minutes per game very often. While that may need to change to an extent this year, this team still has enough experience for Pearl to get away with it. Broome still is unlikely to reach 1,000 minutes played this season, which is underwhelming for a guy projected to be an All-American. Either way, Auburn has an extremely difficult non-conference schedule, as they play Houston in a semi-away game, at Duke, and they play Iowa State in the first game of the Maui Invitational, among others. This schedule combined with a rigorous conference schedule in the SEC will be taxing on Auburn players. If Pearl’s philosophy is able to keep his players as fresh as they can be going into March, expect this team to make a deep March Madness run once again.
The Center Hub 
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