This Auburn Senior Could Be Tigers' X-Factor in Homestretch of Season

It’s no secret that the Auburn Tigers have been one of the most inconsistent teams in all of college basketball this season.

Auburn’s ceiling is high, as it showed a few weeks ago in its nine-point win over Florida in Gainesville, but the Tigers’ floor is also extremely low, as we saw last Wednesday in their loss to Mississippi State.

However, one thing that can help Auburn overcome these inefficiencies and potentially make a run in the late stages of the season is a true leader.

One of the traits that this year’s team has lacked is the presence of a leader in the locker room – not a coach, not a staffer, but a player.

There have been flashes of leadership from different individuals, such as Keyshawn Hall or Kevin Overton, but one senior has emerged as the apparent true leader whom the team can rally behind.

And that is KeShawn Murphy.

Murphy has performed as one of the most consistent and dependable Tigers thus far, and it all came together in Auburn’s massive 75-74 win over Kentucky on Saturday in Neville Arena.

The Mississippi State transfer big man posted a career-high 25 points on 9-for-14 (64.3%) from the field in just 24 minutes of action against the Wildcats, while adding 10 rebounds and two blocks in the contest. Murphy also went 6-for-6 from the foul line and provided a solid paint presence down low on both ends of the floor.

The AMAZING Murphy‼️🕷️ pic.twitter.com/C1SqxBDwqj
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) February 22, 2026

Saturday marked Murphy’s fifth double-double of the season, and it was his third in the last five outings. He recorded 13 points and 12 rebounds in Auburn’s loss to Alabama on Feb. 7, and proved to be a dominant force for a solid portion of the Tigers’ game at Arkansas, where he notched 22 points and 12 boards.

But more than production and consistent effort, Murphy seems to be spearheading the locker room and taking many of his fellow teammates under his wing. On Saturday against Kentucky, he was seen in multiple instances consoling and motivating the other four Tigers on the floor during crunch time.

The television broadcast also caught it a couple of times, during which he would encourage and, for lack of a better word, inspire his teammates to truly compete and finish the game with fire. If Murphy had not taken the leadership role down the stretch of Saturday’s contest, there’s a solid chance the Tigers would’ve dropped their sixth straight.

Overall, an on-court leader is what Auburn has been seeking this entire year. On a team full of younger talent, and only two seniors on the roster (Murphy and Hall), there aren’t many other options.

This is similar to what Auburn fans saw at the beginning of last year’s NCAA Tournament run, where senior Dylan Cardwell completely changed the tone of the Tigers’ locker room after a non-convincing win over Alabama State in the first round.

Many people believed if Cardwell had not set the tone straight and sent that message to his fellow Tigers, Auburn may not have seen the second weekend of March Madness.

If Murphy can take the reins of this squad and continue to invite them to buy into a common goal, which should be to get back to their ceiling in time for the tournament, the Tigers could potentially make some noise in the postseason.