Auburn basketball inside top 15 in preseason AP Top 25
Auburn basketball has seemingly reached a point of stability that few teams in the SEC have found.
Under the guidance of Bruce Pearl (who enters his tenth season with the Tigers this fall), SEC titles, NCAA Tournament berths, NBA Draft selections, and accolades have become common - in what feels like a short amount of time.
In 2022-23, it's more about "reloading" than "rebuilding."
And Auburn has reloaded.
The preseason AP Top 25 has the Tigers starting the season No. 15, their fourth appearance in the preseason poll in the last five seasons. Kentucky, Arkansas, and Tennessee are the three SEC teams ahead of Auburn.
Despite the loss of star duo Walker Kessler and Jabari Smith to the NBA Draft, the Tigers have gone out and replenished the frontcourt with Morehead State transfer Johni Broome (one of the most efficient players in college basketball a season ago) and Yohan Traore (five-star prospect originally committed to LSU).
Combine that with the experienced backcourt of Wendell Green Jr, Zep Jasper and KD Johnson, and the Tigers have an opportunity to defend their SEC regular season title here in just a couple of weeks.
Auburn basketball opens the season against Alabama-Huntsville on November 2nd.
You can take a look at the poll in its entirety below.
1. North Carolina
2. Gonzaga
3. Houston
4. Kentucky
5. Kansas
6. Baylor
7. Duke
8. UCLA
9. Creighton
10. Arkansas
11. Tennessee
12. Texas
13. Indiana
14. TCU
15. Auburn
16. Villanova
17. Arizona
18. Virginia
19. San Diego State
20. Alabama
21. Oregon
22. Michigan
23. Illinois
24. Dayton
25. Texas Tech
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