The first time I watched Auburn center Austin Wiley in-person was when the Tigers traveled to Vanderbilt on January 4.
It was only Wiley’s fifth game at Auburn after joining the team in mid-December.
As you would expect, it wasn’t his best game. He started, but didn’t play much after picking up two fouls in the first 12 minutes.
A stat line of six points and four rebounds wouldn’t be the norm for the 5-star big man out of Hoover, Alabama. Although he didn’t play much in the game, it was clear that his presence in the paint was one that SEC teams would struggle to ignore once he gained more experience.
I knew that. Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl knew that.
“Here’s the deal: He’s 17 years old,” Pearl said after the game when I asked him about Wiley’s handful of performances in an Auburn uniform. “It’s just hard because he doesn’t know everything we’re doing.”
“Guys have been together for eight months and he’s been with us for 20 days. This year for Austin is all about getting him ready for next year, which would’ve been his true freshman year.”
That next year is upon us, and if Wiley’s visible progress during his 23 games last season are a sign of what’s to come, he could wind up being one of the SEC’s most improved players.
Wiley’s first breakout moment came during his freshman season before his true freshman season against none other than in-state rival Alabama.
Wiley played the second most minutes that he’d play all season (25) and scored a career-high 19 points to lead the Tigers to a 20-point thrashing of the Crimson Tide.
It wasn’t a bad way for a 17-year-old kid to really introduce himself to the Auburn faithful, or to the Alabama fans that he’ll undoubtedly agonize for several years to come.
But Wiley wasn’t done yet. Two games later, he followed it up with a tremendous performance against TCU in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge in late January.
The 6-foot-11 big man helped fuel a 25-2 Auburn run in the second half by hitting a new career-high with 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting from the floor.
The rest of Wiley’s season featured the inevitable ups and downs, with foul trouble being a major theme along the way. He finished with at least three fouls in seven of the team’s final 10 games.
But that was nothing unusual for a young player still adjusting to the speed of the game at the college level. It takes a while for things to slow down. Wiley wasn’t the first freshman to ever be plagued by foul trouble, and he won’t be the last.
The 2017-18 season should offer improvement in that area and many more. Wiley will be called upon to be Auburn’s leader in the frontcourt after finishing as the team’s fourth-leading scorer last season – with the Tigers being the only team in the country to have all freshmen as their top four scorers.
He’ll also need to be the reliable rebounder that Auburn will need this upcoming season. The Tigers struggled in finishing 13th in the SEC and 270th nationally last season in rebounding margin (-2.4). Wiley’s was tied with Danjel Purifoy as the team’s second-leading rebounder with 4.7 rebounds per game.
The increased strength from getting an entire offseason of college strength training under his belt should help Wiley aid Pearl and company in that category.
Wiley’s improved ability to be a consistent scorer in the paint while being a more efficient rim defender will go a long way towards sending Auburn to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2003.
But even if that doesn’t happen, his presence on the court will be something that no spectator or opposing team will be able to ignore.