Auburn's Steven Pearl Reveals Severity of Keyshawn Hall Ankle Injury

The Auburn Tigers dropped their first game of the season to No. 1 Houston on Sunday, but a more prominent concern emerged with about five minutes remaining in regulation.

Senior small forward/power forward Keyshawn Hall, Auburn’s best player thus far, went down after driving and drawing a foul with 4:14 left in the second half. His right foot landed awkwardly on a Houston defender’s shoe, and he spent a few minutes on the ground in visible pain. Hall came back in to shoot the free throws, sinking both to cut the Houston lead to two before exiting the game for the final four minutes and change.

Head coach Steven Pearl revealed the official diagnosis of Hall’s injury at his press conference on Tuesday, and it may not be as bad as the staff originally thought.

“He is doing – he’s good. He had an X-ray on his ankle, had an X-ray on his foot today. And what kind of came of that is just a lateral ankle and foot sprain, so we don’t really have a timetable for his return,” Pearl said. “I just know the last couple of days, he’s been in here every opportunity that he can and getting treatment and, obviously, trying to get back as soon as possible.”

“I wouldn’t expect Key to play (against Jackson State) just because I don’t want him to play tomorrow,” Pearl continued. “I want him to get healthy and I want him to get back to 100% because it’s a long season. So we’re going to prepare this week and prepare for next week as if we may not have him.”

Hall has easily been Auburn’s most productive player through its four games, as he is currently averaging 23.3 points and 11.0 rebounds per game. He’s also shooting 51.1% from the field, and has notched over 20 points and eight rebounds in every outing thus far. During the Tigers’ third win over Wofford last week, the UCF transfer became the first Auburn player to open a season with three consecutive 20-point games since KT Harrell in 2014.

we got a good one 🔑 pic.twitter.com/MJuaLVzPC9
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) November 14, 2025

As Pearl said, there’s no timetable for Hall’s return, but Auburn has a week to figure things out before heading to Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival. The Tigers host Jackson State on Wednesday night before facing Oregon and No. 7 Michigan, meaning they can test a couple of different lineup variations in Hall’s absence.

With center KeShawn Murphy fully back from injury, Hall started at the four spot against Houston, but either Sebastian Williams-Adams or Filip Jovic is likely expected to take his role versus Jackson State.

Nonetheless, it’ll be helpful for Pearl and company to see how his squad operates without its leading scorer, which will help him prepare for Auburn’s upcoming battles if Hall were unable to suit up in Las Vegas.