Any spare time that Auburn’s coaching staff had after the season is now being spent putting together a 2020 recruiting-class that reflects the memorable Final Four run.
The staff started off the weekend offering a couple of recruits from the 2021 class: Josh Primo and Jabari Smith.
Smith plays at Sandy Creek High School (GA) and for the Atlanta Celtics AAU team. He’s a 6’9 forward who holds offers from Georgia, Georgia Tech, Florida State, and Ole Miss, among others.
Primo is an unranked recruit who plays for Huntington Prep (WV) and for the UPLAY Canada 16u AAU team. He hasn’t received much attention yet, but Auburn has had success when it comes to being one of the first teams to offer a recruit.
The Tigers also offered 2020 top-100 Matthew Murrell, a 6’4 shooting guard from Memphis.
Outside of the offers, Auburn’s coaches, along with coaches from all over the country, traveled to Atlanta to watch some of the top teams in the Nike EYBL circuit.
Some of the teams and players that Bruce Pearl and Auburn’s coaching staff watched:
- Alabama Fusion – JD Davis (2021)
- Team Durant – Earl Timberlake, Darius Maddox
- AOT – Sharife Cooper, Brandon Boston Jr, Dylan Cardwell
- Team WhyNot – Addison Patterson, Devin Askew, Nimari Burnett, Terren Frank
- Texas Titans – Greg Brown, Cade Cunningham
- Woodz Elite – Chris Moore
- Phenom U – Jaemyn Brakefield
One of the first games that Auburn coaches attended was Alabama Fusion and AOT, which Alabama Fusion won 120-89. Jadan Coleman led Alabama Fusion with 25 points, while Tyler Lang and Mark Sears each scored 19.
Sharife Cooper racked up 35 points and eight assists against the Fusion, while Brandon Boston Jr. added 27 points and led the team with eight rebounds.
Sharife Cooper has the total package ? @NikeEYB @CooperSharife pic.twitter.com/vfiohQkp64
— SLAM HS Hoops (@SLAM_HS) April 27, 2019
Pearl or at least one Auburn assistant attended both of AOT’s Saturday games, which had everyone from Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski to Oregon’s Dana Altman to Kentucky’s John Calipari courtside at some point.
Boston and Cooper continued the show on Sunday. AOT went 1-1 on the day, but Cooper had 30 points, six assists and five rebounds in their loss against the Oakland Soldiers. He also had 37 points, seven assists and five rebounds in their win against the Georgia Stars.
Boston was held in check against the Georgia Stars, but he had 27 points, 12 rebounds and four assists against the Oakland Soldiers.
Justin Ferguson of The Athletic tweeted this regarding Sharife Cooper’s reclassification rumors, courtesy of Kyle Tucker of The Athletic:
5-star 2020 PG Sharife Cooper is at Nike EYBL in Atlanta, and @KyleTucker_ATH talked to him after an outstanding performance with Bruce Pearl in attendance.
Here's what he told Kyle and several other reporters about all that reclassification chatter: pic.twitter.com/q2C6EXpwyZ
— Justin Ferguson (@JFergusonAU) April 27, 2019
It sounds like Cooper is leaning towards staying in the class of 2020 for now, but the rumors are still circulating. Either way, it seems doubtful that any information would be made public before the NBA draft and maybe even before the end of the summer.
Another big Auburn target, 2020 forward Greg Brown, and his Texas Titans team started off their weekend by beating Drive Nation. Brown scored 24 points on 73 percent shooting and added 14 rebounds in just 23 minutes.
Adam Zagoria tweeted that Brown won’t focus on recruiting until after the summer:
2020 F Greg Brown @gb3elite recently hosted Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, Texas’ Shaka Smart And Memphis’ Mike Miller but won’t focus on recruiting until after the summer.
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) April 27, 2019
Brown has been working on his three-point shooting, and it sounds like that was on full display this weekend. That would make him an even better fit for Auburn’s offense, but it also makes him a more valuable prospect for the rest of the country.
Auburn coaches watched Brown and his Texas Titans team beat Woodz Elite 83-80. Brown scored 14 points and grabbed seven boards while his teammate Cade Cunningham went for 32 points.
Woodz Elite’s Chris Moore, another one of Auburn’s top targets in 2020, scored 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting, and added six rebounds in 25 minutes against the Texas Titans.
Auburn coaches also watched the Texas Titans play Phenom University. Brown had a quiet game against Phenom as Cunningham scored 32 points again.
Phenom’s Jaemyn Brakefield scored 12 points in the matchup and is another major 2020 Auburn target.
Walker Kessler had a somewhat interesting weekend. The five-star, Georgia-legacy received an offer and a visit from former Georgia head coach and current Cal head coach Mark Fox on Friday.
Bruce Pearl has had a lot of success recruiting during his summers at Auburn, which could make this an eventful summer with a loaded 2020 class playing AAU this season.