It comes from within

AUBURN | The additions of some talented transfers and a highly-rated recruiting class has helped Bruce Pearl make a significant upgrade to the roster going into this third season at Auburn.

But winning basketball games and competing at the top of the SEC is more than just collecting talented players. Pearl needs leadership from a team that returns just a couple of upperclassmen from last season.

“When coaches lead, we can win games. When players lead, you can win championships. It has to come from within," Pearl said. “I don’t know which players it’s going to be but it has to come from within the framework of our team. We’re too young and we’re still too new for me to know who that is going to be. I like our work ethic, I like our attitude but I don’t know which player or players it’s going to come from but it needs to come from within.”

The veterans on this year’s team will be senior guard T.J. Dunans, junior guard TJ Lang and senior forward Devin Waddell, who is a former walk-on. Pearl returns a strong freshman class from last season including sophomores Horace Spencer, Bryce Brown and New Williams, and redshirt freshman Danjel Purifoy.

Purifoy missed out on valuable experience last year while sitting out due to an academic issue.

“He’s a very talented player and he’s going to have an impact on our team but he would have had a lot more impact on our team had he been a sophomore and gone through the rigors and been on the road and just experienced the good, the bad and the ugly that can take place as a freshman,” Pearl said.

“I think one of the things to building a consistent program and building a winner, building a team that can be in the Tournament is bringing guys back. I’ve just not been able to bring enough guys back to matter but we’re getting closer.”

Six new players have joined the team including graduate transfers Ronnie Johnson and LaRon Smith, Presbyterian transfer Desean Murray, who will have to sit out this season, and true freshmen Mustapha Heron, Anfernee McLemore and Jared Harper.

Pearl said the freshmen still have a long way to go in learning how to play college-level defense.

“Most kids coming in offensively have got game, they’ve goto skills and they can score. But playing defense, team defense, rotations, it’s somewhat shocking to me how weak some of their fundamentals are coming in so we’ve got some catching up to do in that area,” he said. “I’m just talking about simple shell work — ball pressure, rotations, ball-screen defense — just the team defensive aspects. I’m talking about elementary stuff but you’ve got to go back and teach those fundamentals again.

“If you can get a team to play hard and play together defensively, rebound, then they’ll share the ball on the offensive end as well.”

Overall, Pearl is excited about the potential of this year’s team, which is going through summer workouts.

“Of our top 12 or 13 guys, seven or eight of them are freshmen or sophomores so we’ve got a very good, young foundation built,” he said. “I think the combination of the way Auburn Arena has emerged as a great home court advantage and the support that we’ve received in selling games out and our attendance numbers based on a percentage of seats that we have — butts in the seat — we’re one of the top 10 in the country as far percentage is concerned. That’s great for Auburn and that’s great for the SEC and probably doesn’t get near enough attention.

“We’ve upgraded the recruiting the last couple of years, we’ve had some good classes, and that’s going to start paying off for us on the court.”