College Basketball: Previewing Auburn versus Purdue

Today's slate of college basketball features a handful of intriguing matchups, including St John's-Kentucky, Houston-Arkansas, Duke-Texas Tech, and Auburn-Purdue. The latter game features Tahaad Pettiford and the No. 21-ranked team in the country going up against Braden Smith and No. 6-ranked Purdue. Let's take a look at who to watch on both squads below.

Auburn Tigers

The Tigers have a handful of interesting prospects to watch in this game, starting with 6-foot-1 sophomore returner Tahaad Pettiford. A player who was on that first-round pick/guaranteed contract and two-way contract verge for the 2025 NBA Draft, Pettiford ultimately decided to return to Auburn. He's averaging 16.1 points, 2.5 assists, 2.6 rebounds, two stocks, and two turnovers per game while shooting 50% at the rim (38 attempts), 38.9% on non-rim twos (36 attempts), 32.9% from three (76 attempts), and 83.7% from the free throw line (43 attempts) this season.

Auburn has two other main prospects to watch in 6-foot-7 senior Keyshawn Hall and 6-foot-8 freshman Sebastian Williams-Adams. Hall can put the ball on the floor and, while he's on his fourth school in four years, is having his best college basketball season to date statistically -- averaging 20.9 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.3 stocks, and 2.4 turnovers per game while shooting 55.6% at the rim (54 attempts), 38.1% on non-rim twos (21 attempts), 41.5% from three (41 attempts), and 89.1% from the free throw line (92 attempts). A 6-foot-7 ball-handling wing averaging 20+ points in the SEC while being unassisted on 52.7% of his made field goals while assisting an estimated 12.2% of his teammates' made field goals when on the floor is likely to garner serious NBA looks when June comes around.

Sebastian Williams-Adams, on the other hand, ismaking an impact on the defensive end so far for the Tigers -- recording a stock percentage of three and a block percentage of 2.7 so far this season.

Purdue Boilermakers

The Boilermakers have four players to monitor -- the first being senior Braden Smith. The 6-foot guard is widely considered one of the best point guards in college basketball and has continued to showcase why so far this season.

Smith is averaging 12.7 points, four rebounds, 9.2 assists, and 1.7 steals per game while shooting 57.1% at the rim (21 attempts), 34% on non-rim twos (47 attempts), 42.6% from three (47 attempts), and 68.6% from the free throw line (35 attempts) (despite being a career 81.9% free throw shooter). He's the engine for one of the best teams in the country, as he's been unassisted on 70.8% of his made field goals this season while assisting an estimated 44.9% of his teammates' made field goals when on the floor this season.

Three other players to watch are Daniel Jacobsen, Oscar Cluff, and Trey Kaufman-Renn. Jacobsen is a 7-foot-4 sophomore who's making an impact as a rim protector (17.8 block percentage) and rebounder (12.3 offensive rebound percentage) so far this season -- any 7-foot-4 player making an impact is someone to watch.

Cluff is a graduate senior who transferred from South Dakota State last season, where he averaged 17.6 points and 12.3 rebounds last season. The 6-foot-11 big has continued to make an impact at Purdue this season, averaging 12.4 points and 9.3 rebounds per game.

Lastly, Kaufman-Renn is a 6-foot-9, 210-pound senior who averaged 20.1 points per game for the Boilermakers last season and is already off to a strong start in nine appearances -- averaging 13.4 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. All three players should be monitored as prospects as the season progresses.