Over the past six months, Auburn athletics have constantly been in the spotlight for various reasons. It was the men’s basketball team that garnered national attention back in late September when associate head coach Chuck Person was arrested and charged with six counts of federal corruption.
On Sept. 26th, Person was suspended without pay by Auburn University.
On Tuesday, Person was indicted by a federal grand jury and Auburn University officially terminated him. Person faces charges including bribery conspiracy, solicitation of bribes and gratuities, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, honest services wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and travel act conspiracy.
In the FBI investigation, the mothers of two unnamed players were said to have received payments of a combined $18,500 from Person.
Prior to Auburn’s first exhibition of the men’s basketball season, sophomores Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy were ruled out indefinitely for the Tigers. Concerns about the players’ eligibility forced the athletic department to sit the two players.
“To avoid any potential eligibility issues, Auburn Athletics has decided to hold men’s basketball players Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy out indefinitely. Because this is related to an ongoing investigation, we cannot comment any further at this time,” Auburn Athletics said in a statement.
You could definitely tell that the sophomores were missed the first time the Tigers took the court for the 2017-2018 season.
“It’s an ongoing investigation, and it has to run its course. We will be able to determine their eligibility over, hopefully, a very short period of time,” head coach Bruce Pearl said following the exhibition opener. “But we’re still not in a position where we can determine their eligibility yet so therefore, out of caution, they were not eligible to play.”
It’s important to say first that this game didn’t count. Nonetheless, the Auburn Tigers did lose Thursday night to Barry University, 100-95. The visitors from Miami, Florida compete at the NCAA Division II level and made Auburn Arena feel like home in the Tigers first exhibition loss since 2010. Here are my three takeaways.
1. Auburn has several defensive issues
With the two sophomore starters out, Auburn struggled at times defensively. The Buccaneers were able to find open shot after open shot and exploited the young Auburn defense with solid ball movement. Barry also made 16 three-point shots. Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl noted that the defense will need to improve moving forward.
“We’ve got some big wings that have to be able to move their feet and stay in front of guards,” head coach Bruce Pearl said.
2. Jared Harper is ready to lead this team
Point guard is the most important position for a basketball team and sophomore Jared Harper is ready to take on that pressure and lead this young Auburn team. Harper also didn’t back down when questioned about the focus of this team, given the eligibility concerns of his teammates.
“As a team, we weren’t focused on the Danjel and Austin situation. We can’t control what fans say. We can only control what happens in our locker room,” Harper said following Auburn’s loss to Barry.
Harper had 20 points and 7 assists in the exhibition.
3. Three-point shooting has to improve
Auburn struggled to make shots from beyond the arc against Barry. The Tigers shot just 3 for 20 from three-point range, a mere 15 percent. Auburn shot 36 percent from three a year ago. Bryce Brown and Mustapha Heron who both shot over 40 percent from three last season, shot a combined 1 for 9 from distance.
With a lot of buzz around this Auburn men’s basketball team, the start to the regular season can’t come soon enough. While the eligibility of Wiley and Purifoy is still up in the air, it will be a chance for Auburn to get out of the headlines for negative reasons and worry about playing basketball.
