Auburn Basketball Opens Practice on Friday

Auburn Head Men's Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl (Photo: Auburn Athletics/Zach Bland)

Auburn Men’s Basketball will begin preparations for the upcoming season on Friday, when practice officially opens.

Head Coach Bruce Pearl, who enters his third season at Auburn, says that he remembers a time when practice opened on October 15th, and the three weeks between then, and opening tipoff, were filled with grueling schedules that did not allow enough time for teams to train. Pearl says that having extra time is beneficial to the game.

“Thanks to what I think are the real improvement of the rules in that we can work with them in the summer and work with them in the fall, we are so much further ahead and so are all the other teams. Teams are better. Players are better. It reduces the risk of injury. Right now, we look pretty good offensively and defensively. We have a lot of work to do.”

Auburn returns six players from last season’s roster, including TJ Dunans, TJ Lang, and Horace Spencer. Mustapha Heron, the first ever 5-star recruit in school history, joins the team this season, as well as graduate transfers Ronnie Johnson (Houston), and LaRon Smith (Bethune-Cookman). Six of Auburn’s top 10 players are either Sophomores or Freshmen.

Auburn will open the season on November 11th at Auburn Arena against North Florida.