Noting areas of concern for Auburn basketball in 2024-25. Spoiler alert: There aren’t many

AUBURN — It’s no secret what’s expected from Auburn basketball next season.

The Tigers, coming off a campaign in which they won 26 games by double digits, are anticipated to fight for another SEC title in 2024-25 − whether that be of the regular-season or tournament variety. Maybe even both. Looking bigger, fans are expecting a trip to, at the very least, the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, a place Auburn hasn’t been since it shot its way to the Final Four in 2019.

That’s the nature of the business when the Tigers were as good as they were last year, are returning the majority of their contributors, including All-American center Johni Broome, and have added at least a couple of impact transfers in point guard JP Pegues (Furman) and wing Miles Kelly (Georgia Tech). That’s all without mentioning five-star freshman Tahaad Pettiford.

Auburn isn’t without faults, though; there isn’t a team in the country safe from falling short of exceptions.

Here are three areas of concern for the Tigers heading into next season:

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Jaylin Williams is no easy player to replace

Want to know how valuable of a piece All-SEC forward Jaylin Williams was last season? Go back and take a look at coach Bruce Pearl’s face after Williams sustained what, at the time, was believed to be a serious knee injury against Kentucky in February.

Williams, who has now run out of eligibility, ended up missing just one game. His importance was on display all season long, oftentimes proving to be the X-factor. In wins, Williams averaged 13.9 points while hitting 63.2% of his shots, including a 47.8% rate from beyond the 3-point arc. In losses? Those numbers were 7.6, 39.1% and 10.5%, respectively.

The Tigers will lean on Chaney Johnson, an Alabama-Huntsville transfer heading into his second season at Auburn, to primarily replace Williams at power forward; Georgia State transfer Ja’Heim Hudson will also be in the picture. Johnson stepped up over the last eight games of last season, averaging 17.3 points per 40 minutes. For comparison, Williams averaged 17.9 over that same stretch.

Williams was playing more − 6.5 more minutes a game − but Johnson was just about matching his production in a reserve role. Auburn needs that type of performance on a consistent basis next season.

Auburn needs to help Johni Broome on the glass

Finding flaws in the Tigers was tough to do last year, but securing rebounds may have been the biggest issue to point out. Auburn finished the season with a defensive rebounding percentage of 69.8%, according to College Basketball Analytics. That was good for No. 8 in the SEC and No. 224 out of the 362 Division I teams across the country.

Broome (25.8%) and Johnson (17.1%) were the only two players on the roster with personal defensive rebounding percentages above 15% (minimum 25 total minutes). Auburn was the only team in the SEC without at least three players grabbing 15% or more of opposing team’s misses while they were on the floor.

The good news for the Tigers is Kelly is an above-average rebounder for his size. He averaged 5.5 boards at 6-foot-6 last season, and his defensive rebounding percentage settled at 15.4%.

JP Pegues must stay healthy

Injuries are a concern for every team. That’s not unique to Auburn.

What may be specific to Auburn, though, is the importance of its starting PG. Pegues is expected to be the starter and be spelled by a mixture of Denver Jones and Pettiford. Jones is a natural shooting guard, though he showed the ability to run the offense in limited opportunities last season.

Pettiford is supremely talented and rated by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 1 PG in the Class of 2024, but Pearl doesn’t want to heap too much responsibility on the plate of his freshman, at least not early. Pearl has plans for Pettiford to focus on getting buckets for himself, rather than having to get others involved constantly.

Regardless, an injury to Pegues would throw a wrench into Auburn’s rotation and leave the Tigers with questions at PG. Something similar could be said for Broome at center, of course, but that’s a given due to his All-American status.

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn basketball: Noting few areas of worry for Tigers in 2024-25