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Auburn begins the 2024-25 college basketball season looking to erase the stigma of its last three NCAA Tournament appearances where it failed to get past the second round.
Ten players are returning from last season's roster, including top scorers Johni Broome and Chad Baker-Mazara. They will be reinforced by three battle-tested cagers from the transfer portal, three freshmen and two other players making their debuts in a Tigers uniform after sitting out a year.
Here's how the upcoming 2024-25 NCAA men's basketball season will shape up for Auburn as it competes in the tough Southeastern Conference.
Auburn's biggest games in the 2024-25 season
Auburn's initial non-conference schedule features three games against teams ranked in the preseason Top 10. The Tigers will meet early favorites Houston on Nov. 9 at the Toyota Center as part of The Battleground 2k hoops series.
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The Cougars are ranked No. 1 by CBS Sports and No. 2 by The Athletic in its way-too-early rankings while the Bruce Pearl-coached squad is ranked eighth and 10th by CBS Sports and The Athletic, respectively.
The following month, Auburn will visit the Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina, to play consensus preseason No. 1 Duke in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Dec. 4. Seventeen days later, it will host 2024 national runner-up Purdue at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham.
Auburn is also scheduled to appear in the 2024 Maui Invitational, which features defending national champion UConn, preseason No. 3 Iowa State, preseason No. 4 North Carolina, Colorado, Dayton, Memphis and Michigan State.
Meanwhile, the Southeastern Conference will start its regular season games on Jan. 4, 2025. As per the schedule released by the SEC, Auburn will meet Alabama, Georgia and Ole Miss twice in a home-and-away format. It will play Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi State, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee at home.
The Tigers will visit Kentucky, LSU, South Carolina, Texas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt during the regular season. Auburn will announce the remaining schedule at a later date.
Key Auburn players to watch out for in the 2024-25 season
Two of Auburn's top scorers from last season — Johni Broome and Chad Baker-Mazara — are returning for another year to lead the Tigers to their fourth-straight NCAA Tournament.
The 6-foot-10 Broome averaged 16.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 2.2 blocks and 0.9 steals per game in 35 games for the SEC-affiliated squad that was ousted by Yale in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
On the other hand, the 6-foot-7 Baker-Mazara put up 10.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.2 assists per contest in 35 games for the Tigers. He and Broome will have bigger roles to play this season after the departures of Jaylin Williams and Aden Holloway.
Also returning for another season is Denver Jones, who played significant minutes as guard for Auburn. He averaged 9.1 ppg and 1.9 rpg in 44.2% shooting from the field.
The Tigers also recruited JP Pegues and Miles Kelly from the transfer portal to boost their backcourt. Pegues, who played for three seasons in Furman, averaged 18.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game in his third year with the Paladins while Kelly tallied 13.9 ppg and 5.5 rpg this past season for Georgia Tech.
Auburn's freshman haul is highlighted by its four-star pickup Tahaad Pettiford. The 6-foot-1 Pettiford is the No. 28 prospect in the nation as per 247Sports. Jahki Howard is a four-star small forward prospect ranked 57th in the country.
Auburn's predictions for the 2024-25 season
Auburn will remain one of the prominent teams in the SEC in the coming season. With Broome and Baker-Mazara leading the attack, expect Auburn to win at least 24 games in the regular season and make the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight time.
It's now up to Broome, Baker-Mazara and their prized transfers and freshmen to step up and help the Tigers progress past the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Will Auburn pass through the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament? Let us know your views in the comments section.
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