Auburn basketball will be looking to cash in on its Final Four run by signing a strong 2020 recruiting class.
Even with a few big names still uncommitted in the 2019 class, Auburn’s class is likely complete, or close to complete, and the staff has been recruiting a few of the prospects in 2020 for a while now.
Let’s look ahead to some of the targets in both the 2020 group.
Sharife Cooper (5-star PG)
Not only did Babatunde Akingbola play with Isaac Okoro in high school and on their AAU team, but some of their teammates rank among Auburn’s top targets in 2020.
One of those teammates is the Tigers’ top target in 2020, 5-star point guard Sharife Cooper, who Akingbola and Okoro have openly helped recruit to Auburn.
Fans have already gotten to know Cooper due to the way he frequents highlight reels and thanks to his relationships with Akingbola and Okoro.
Cooper is one of the top high school point guards and is a complete game changer at that level. In addition to his ball handling and playmaking skills, Cooper gets to the basket with ease and is elite in transition.
Cooper is a five-star, top-25 recruit in 2020 and will have plenty of schools calling while having plenty of opportunities to take visits, but his first offer was from Auburn, and he took his first visit to the school.
Auburn fans have seen Bruce Pearl get a lot of success out of lineups with three or four guards/wings on the court at once, and a possible teaming of Cooper with the players in the 2019 class could make that trend continue, especially with what is likely a dream scenario of adding another elite wing in 2020.
Cooper listed Auburn, Kentucky and Duke as his favorites in December.
Kentucky was rumored to have offered Cooper a chance to join its 2019 class if he reclassified, but Jared Harper’s decision to enter the NBA draft, and Ashton Hagan’s decision to return to Kentucky next season, could make Auburn a more desirable path if Cooper does consider a reclassification.
Cooper was awarded the MVP for the Bass Pro Shops Tournament of Champions and at the City of Palms where his McEachern team, featuring Isaac Okoro, won both championships on their way to a perfect season and a Georgia state championship.
As a junior, Cooper was named MaxPrep’s 2018-19 Boys Player of the Year and became the first non-senior to ever win the award. He was also named USA Today’s 2019 ALL-USA High School Boys Basketball Player of the Year.
Keon Johnson (4-star SG)
As far as wings go, and as far as I can tell, Auburn’s staff has seemed to favor Brandon “BJ” Boston Jr, Keon Johnson and Jayden Stone in 2020.
Johnson is a borderline five-star recruit who seems to be leaning towards Tennessee.
Johnson’s mom, Conswella Sparrow, was a former standout at Auburn and won All-SEC Honors twice in her career with the Tigers.
Auburn and Johnson’s relationship seemed to get cold for a little while, but Pearl traveled to watch Johnson in person in January.
BJ Boston (5-star forward)
Boston, a top-10 player in the class of 2020, also played AAU with AOT, playing with Cooper, Akingbola, and Okoro.
Cooper and Boston are both playing with the USA Basketball Junior National Team, and that team recently practiced in Minneapolis and were there for the Final Four.
Boston seems to be one of Duke’s top targets in 2020, but Auburn is in contention and has been said to be one of his seven favorite schools at this point. Boston will attend the school of his choice, and the Tigers could be in the mix.
Boston has an amazing offensive skill set for his age. Thanks to his elite ball handling and scoring, he seems to be able to play anywhere in the backcourt in transition or half-court sets while standing around 6’7.
He was scheduled to visit Auburn Arena for the Tigers’ blowout win over Alabama, but a last-second cancellation means he will be rescheduling that visit. Despite the cancellation, Boston has been on campus a few times already.
Jayden Stone (4-star SG)
Stone is another name to watch, as Auburn offered him back in August of 2018.
He has visited Auburn and has had the team’s coaches, including Bruce Pearl, at his games multiple times since receiving an offer.
Stone is originally from Australia and currently plays high school basketball in Birmingham.
Stone plays fast and is great getting to and finishing at the rim. He also has excellent ball handling skills.
Chris Moore (4-star PF)
Auburn could also be in need of a few additions in the post in the 2020 class.
Moore, a four-star recruit on 247Sports, is a double-double machine out of Arkansas who fits that versatile forward/center role very well.
He’s a great rim protector and seems to have the ability to play both small forward and power forward in college. Auburn has offered him and coaches have watched him play multiple times.
In addition to rim protecting, scoring and rebounding, Moore has good court vision and passing skills.
Other 2020 targets
In February, Greg Brown, a top 10 prospect in the class, released his top-10 list and it included Auburn. But he is from Austin and would likely be hard to get out of Texas, even if he would be a nice fit for Tigers.
Akeem Odusipe and Justice Ajogbor both stand around 6’10 and hold Auburn offers.
Auburn has also had coaches watching 2020 top-75 center Cliff Omoruyi at least twice so far in 2019.
Omoruyi holds offers from Syracuse, UConn, NC State and Florida, among others, and he took an unofficial visit to UConn recently.
Omoruyi stands nearly seven feet tall as a junior in high school and plays at the same school as Kentucky commit Khalil Whitney in New Jersey.
Auburn seemed to be making a big push for Omoruyi during the regular season, with Adam Zagoria commenting on Twitter that the Tigers were working as hard as anyone for Omoruyi.
Ebenezer Dowuona is a four-star 6’10 center out of Newnan, Georgia who can add immediate size to any roster, and he has recently climbed Auburn’s board, as well as other SEC schools like Mississippi State and Missouri.
Walker Kessler is a five-star and a top-15 center on multiple recruiting sites and has been an Auburn target for a while.
Kessler has been on campus multiple times, including visiting for the team’s home game against Kentucky.
His ability to stretch the floor and protect the rim would make him a great fit at Auburn.
Kessler is another target playing with the USA Basketball National Team, but his family ties to Georgia and the attention he’s getting from schools like Duke make it seem like he would be hard to get.
Other Auburn prospects in the mix include Moses Moody, KD Johnson, Jaemyn Brakefield, Austin Harvell, and Samson Ruzhentsev.
But with the 2019 class still wrapping up, it’s not quite clear who the staff is prioritizing outside of Cooper, Boston, Moore, and possibly Keon Johnson, Stone, and maybe another big man like Kessler or Brown.
This upcoming summer should make it more clear who else Auburn is prioritizing in this particular class based on what AAU teams the coaches watch play.