Bruce previews UGA game and Senior Night

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Auburn to honor seniors Saturday, but how many could return next season?

Multiple Auburn seniors could exercise a year of COVID-19 eligibility in 2024-25

Jaylin Williams hasn’t let the feeling sink in yet. After all, he’s had the same routine for five seasons.

But for the last time Saturday, the winningest player in program history will suit up in the orange and blue 

“It's like another game, then I'm gonna play here next week,” Williams said Friday. “It hasn't really hit me. I feel like Saturday, when the jump ball happens, it's gonna really hit. Towards the end of the game, with the clock winding down towards the wire, it's gonna really hit me. That's when I feel like everything's going to be more emotional with it being my last game here.”

As Auburn looks for its second win over Georgia in as many weeks, Saturday is also the curtain call for at least a couple Tigers at Neville Arena. Williams and Lior Berman, both fifth-year seniors, are the only players out of eligibility for next season. They were recognized on senior day last season, so they won’t be included in the festivities Saturday.

Six players will be recognized pregame: Johni Broome, Dylan Cardwell, K.D. Johnson, Chris Moore, Carter Sobera and Jalen Harper. All six have another year of eligibility they could exercise in 2024-25. 

"The faces of these guys — Dylan or K.D. or Chris or Lior — are the faces of Auburn basketball," Bruce Pearl said Friday. 

Harper, a walk-on guard and the younger brother of former Auburn star Jared Harper, is the only one with plans to play elsewhere. After this season, he wants to go to Spain, where his brother plays, and look for an opportunity to begin his professional career overseas. Sobera, another walk-on, mentioned Friday that he could return to the program next season.

Broome — who could be argued as a snub on Friday’s finalists for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award for the best center in the country — will have the option to return to Auburn or turn pro, just like last season. Broome was close to leaving for the NBA after a strong draft process, and has only improved as a potential All-American in his second season with the program.

The three players from the 2020 recruiting class still have an extra year of eligibility from the COVID-19 season they could exercise: Cardwell, Johnson and Moore.

“No,” Pearl said Friday when asked if he’s had discussions with those players about returning next season. “We're taking this one game at a time.”

Cardwell shared a similar sentiment, saying he’ll likely make a decision shortly after the Tigers’ season is over.

“I don't know what my future looks like,” Cardwell said. “But it's just — there's no words to describe what's going to happen on Saturday. It's just a lot of emotion wrapped into it."

For Williams, the winningest player in program history will play the last of a whopping 79 games in Neville Arena.

Of course, his and the Tigers’ work isn’t done there.

“I'm not trying to let anyone break that record anytime soon,” Williams said with a laugh. “Hopefully COVID doesn't come around again and give somebody another year. … It's amazing to have that with my last name on there, just for my family to be able to say their nephew or their cousin or their brother has that at a university that's so big in the SEC. With something we grew up watching, for me to be able to be the winningest player in Auburn history is amazing, knowing all the players that have come through this organization.”

Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. CST on SEC Network. With a win, Auburn will clinch a top-four seed in next week’s SEC tournament.

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