ESPN Details Auburn Basketball’s Ceiling, Floor For Upcoming Season

Head coach Steven Pearl enters his second season with hopes of getting to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in his tenure.

Auburn basketball looks to bounce back with key retentions and transfers highlighting its offseason. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The Auburn Tigers have had a rollercoaster of a pair of seasons over the last two years; in 2024, legendary Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl led his team to a Final Four, but in 2025, Pearl retired, paving the way for his son, Steven Pearl, to take over the squad. The younger Pearl’s team struggled in 2025, resulting in an NIT Championship win, though that was certainly not the result Tiger fans were looking for.

The Tigers have been quite active in the transfer portal this past offseason and have even gotten a few exhibition matchups in with Lithuanian professional team KK Mega Superbet, but how are they actually expected to fare in 2026?

ESPN’s Myron Medcalf shared his thoughts on the matter on Wednesday.

“Auburn won the NIT championship, but only after weathering a 1-7 stretch that torpedoed its shot at an at-large NCAA tournament berth,” Medcalf wrote. “But both Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin Overton -- who combined to score 50 points in the team's win over Tulsa in the NIT championship -- are returning this season. The big question: Is there a replacement for Keyshawn Hall (19.3 PPG, 38% from 3)?”

Medcalf went on to project the Tigers’ ceiling–or the best possible reality in his mind–as a 25-win team that would finally bow out in the round of 32 during March Madness, while his projection of the team’s floor, or the worst possible reality, sees the Tigers as a 20-win team that, once again, misses out on the NCAA Tournament.

However, Medcalf presented a major question that has been circulating in Auburn basketball circles for some time: Is there truly a replacement for Hall? The Tigers would certainly like to think so, as they have signed height and strength in Narcisse Ngoy, a French seven-footer, as well as Bukky Oboye, a Santa Clara transfer who stands at 7-foot-1.

However, though Hall played the role of a traditional forward for much of the season, height and strength are not all the Tigers are looking to replace. Most importantly, they need a top-level scorer, as well as a top-level three-point shooter. Mantas Rubštavičius seems to tick all of those boxes and more, but even without Rubštavičius, the Tigers can also lean on Thomas Dowd, Owen Freeman, Caleb Williams or any of a host of other new faces on the Plains this year.

We have yet to see all of these players, or the Tigers’ offense as a whole, at full strength so far, so keeping an eye on other exhibition and preseason matches will be crucial to understanding just how far the Tigers could go this season.

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