The Auburn basketball team is ready for the 2025–26 season to see a completely overhauled squad after a season that culminated with a trip to the Final Four. Tahaad Pettiford, a rising sophomore, was the only member of the roster from the previous season who could return.
After the Final Four, the guard, who was still eligible to attend college, declared for the NBA Draft and has been experimenting at the NBA Combine. Pettiford has stated that he will return to the Plains for a second season if he does not believe he has a first-round deal assured. It will be Auburn basketball or the league; he won’t use the transfer site.
The time is running out for Pettiford since next Wednesday, May 28, is the last day to leave the draft without losing his college eligibility. At his annual Fore the Children golf fundraiser for Children’s of Alabama, head coach Bruce Pearl stated that there is a genuine chance that Pettiford may return and that the Tigers were ready to offer him a competitive NIL deal. In around a week, he said, Pettiford would make his choice.
He also had a lot to say about the rising sophomore, who averaged 11.6 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 3.0 assists while playing for the Tigers last season after coming off the bench.
“If he does come back, he’s going to have to play an expanded role, which I know is something that is exciting to him — and probably exciting to our fan base, too, because we’ll get to see more of him,” Pearl told Auburn Undercover. “He’s going to start. More will be revealed about him.
Most publications still predict that Pettiford will be selected in the second round, but given his strong performance at the combine, anything may happen over the course of the next week.
