Miles Kelly Thriving in Front of Auburn Tigers Home Crowd

In his first game with Auburn, Miles Kelly fed off the Tigers’ well-known home atmosphere

Miles Kelly immediately fed off his new home crowd / Jake Crandall / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Auburn Tigers get to play their home games in arguably one of college basketball’s best environments.

Auburn’s student section, known as “The Jungle,” has made Neville Arena a difficult venue for opposing teams to play in and gives the Tigers an advantage every time they take the floor there.

The latest newcomer to realize this is Miles Kelly, a guard who transferred from Georgia Tech to Auburn this offseason. Kelly got a taste of playing in front of “The Jungle” during Auburn’s exhibition against Florida Atlantic but got to see it at full strength in Auburn’s regular season opener against Vermont.

“I fed off it a lot,” Kelly said. “It is my second time playing in Neville and my teammates have been telling me how crazy Neville Arena is. Last game, I witnessed it for the first time, but today was extra special for sure.”

Kelly’s performance reflected this. He led all scorers with 21 points and tallied three rebounds, one block and one steal. He shot 7-of-11 from the field, all of his made field goals coming from 3-point range.

“The first thing that came to mind when I was at (SEC) Media Day, everyone asked me who the best shooter was,” Auburn guard Denver Jones said. “I told them, ‘look, we have Miles (Kelly) and I am not going to elaborate too much, but y’all will see when the season starts.’ Sure enough, he showed that today.”

3-point shooting was an inconsistency for Auburn last season. The addition of Kelly to the team could go a long way toward remedying that issue and making the 3-point shot one of the Tigers’ biggest strengths in 2024-25.

Kelly’s performance earned him praise from Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. Pearl’s teams seem to be at their best when they have a sharpshooter from beyond the arc. Bryce Brown and Jared Harper on Auburn’s 2019 team that made it to the Final Four are an example of this.

“Look, he is an NBA caliber 3-point shooter,” Pearl said. “If he sees it, he can make it. Vermont probably didn’t have a lot of scouting on Miles Kelly, probably looked at some stuff he did back at Georgia Tech. It was not like we got him great shots. He was shooting from anywhere. I thought he had one from Opelika one time, but he was open, so he shot it.”

Auburn was co-led in 3-point shooting by Jones and Chad Baker-Mazara last season, both players are back this year. The addition of Kelly to the team could make Auburn a serious threat from beyond the arc.