Tre Donaldson to Hit the Portal

[tigeraddikt 1,610]

Announced on IG, he will be hitting the portal. Interesting. Hope these guys are moving along bc Bruce sat em down and told em that better guards are on the way. 
 

Tre Donaldson to enter transfer portal after two seasons with Auburn basketball

Richard Silva

Montgomery Advertiser

 

AUBURN — After two seasons with Auburn basketball, Tre Donaldson has plans to move on. The 6-foot-3 point guard announced Wednesday in an Instagram post with Joe Tipton of On3 Sports that he intends to enter the transfer portal.

Donaldson has been used predominantly as coach Bruce Pearl's backup point guard over the last couple of campaigns, spelling Wendell Green Jr. in 2022-23 and Aden Holloway in 2023-24. Donaldson did start 10 games last season, but Holloway started 25.

A former three-star recruit in the Class of 2022, Donaldson originally committed to Auburn as both a football and basketball player before he opted to only focus on the latter; he was rated by the 247Sports Composite as a four-star safety out of Florida State University School in Tallahassee, Florida.

Donaldson averaged 6.7 points on 47.1% shooting as a sophomore. He also added 3.2 assists and 2.4 rebounds per game. His assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.29 in regular-season games against conference opponents ranked No. 11 amongst SEC players who played at least 210 minutes, per College Basketball Analytics.

"You could argue (Donaldson) is maybe the most improved freshman to sophomore perimeter (player) that I’ve studied thus in far the league," Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams said after his team lost at Auburn on Jan. 9. Donaldson scored four points and dished six assists against the Aggies.

Donaldson had a knack for playing well in March with the Tigers. His averages of 6.4 points, 2.3 assists and 1.9 rebounds weren't the most eye-popping figures in the world, but his 51.7% rate from the field and 76.9% efficiency from 3-point range in the seven postseason games he appeared in were impressive.

"I think that both Tre and Aden have taken great care of the ball," Pearl said March 13. "They've understood our offenses, they play within their limitations (and) they're unselfish. But they both are threats to score. They've just done a really good job taking care of the ball and valuing possessions."

Donaldson will have two years of eligibility remaining at his next program.

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.

 

[bigbird 60,532]

https://x.com/tiptonedits/status/1775555912649843006?s=46&t=NWg0rBVK8wNTRp7lN3J4xg

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,671]

I think he has a real chance to be one of those veteran, high level guards that end up leading a great mid major on a deep run. It’s rare to have a true pass first guy in the modern game of basketball, someone will take him

Hopefully this is an indicator we haven’t given up on Aden and he doesn’t feel pressured to leave. I like both but I’ll sleep well knowing he’s still a Tiger 

[aucom96 1,618]

We'd better get the best we can from the portal, because it's hard for me to see Holloway as a starting PG next season. There's just too much still a project with him. 

 

I hate it. At times, Donaldson looked like a great player. He was just very inconsistent. 

[Potatooooooes!! 1,375]

This is my rather uninformed opinion, so if I'm wrong people can teach me why, but I've felt we could use some upgrades on the team for a bit now. We need to go out and get the BEST players possible now

[AU9377 4,934]

The only way to cash in is to enter the portal.  That is the system we now live in.

[tigeraddikt 1,610]

Donaldson A. Improved enough from last year to this year; B. Has enough of the thick-bodied toughness of a guy like Sears in him; C. Has height that I don’t think AH will ever sniff; which all contributed to me wanting him to stay at the expense of AH if it was a toss-up. Of course, BP might have known Furman’s Pegues was already a lock, so he was like “EENIE MEENIE MINEY MOE” between TD or AH for the backup PG position??? If AH gets stronger (by a lot), I could see him possibly having a higher ceiling. But it would almost be a coin flip. Going from this year’s production, I certainly would have tried to keep TD and cut AH loose. 

Edited April 3 by tigeraddikt

[tigeraddikt 1,610]

40 minutes ago, aucom96 said:

We'd better get the best we can from the portal, because it's hard for me to see Holloway as a starting PG next season. There's just too much still a project with him. 

 

I hate it. At times, Donaldson looked like a great player. He was just very inconsistent. 

Pretty sure we have Furman’s Pegues on lock-down as next year’s starting PG. He is an elite mid-major PG talent who I think would bring to the 1 what Broome brought to the 5, if not moreso.

[gravejd 3,270]

Hate to see him go. Definitely one of my favorite players on the team. Thought he improved a lot from his first to second season and was looking forward to seeing him improve even more. Would have much rather kept Tre versus Aden. But maybe we keep neither and start fresh next season. Sports yay 🙄

[cole256 17,083]

Wish we had did this when it was zep, him, green, and KD and we tell someone we need to let someone go to bring in an alpha..... I don't know about now though .....id prefer we kept him and got rid of some other guys

[keeperoftheplains 131]

I really hope Myles Rice gives AU a shot.  If Pegues does come to AU I hope it's because Broome is coming back.

[nthemix 89]

shaping up to be a dramatically different roster next year but with NIL & open transfer portal I guess this will be every year going forward

 

[TAYLORKEETON 792]

I'm assuming, connecting the dots, Peague is ours? The day after his visit, TD enters portal? Hmmm..

[tigeraddikt 1,610]

11 minutes ago, TAYLORKEETON said:

I'm assuming, connecting the dots, Peague is ours? The day after his visit, TD enters portal? Hmmm..

[WillMunny 1,378]

I liked Tre.  Wish him well.  But not sorry for the opportunity to upgrade.

[tinman1 485]

2 hours ago, Potatooooooes!! said:

This is my rather uninformed opinion, so if I'm wrong people can teach me why, but I've felt we could use some upgrades on the team for a bit now. We need to go out and get the BEST players possible now

A novel idea!  Hope our coach reads this.

[Cardin Drake 1,828]

I hate to see him go. Still has some upside, and his 3 point % was good.  I'll always wonder what he would have done at safety. I think he would have had a better shot at the NFL than the NBA. 

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

So, was he encouraged to move along?

[Bigtrain333 98]

4 minutes ago, NWALA Tiger said:

So, was he encouraged to move along?

No but he wanted more NIL and it wasn't offered. He didn't tell coaches he was leaving.

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

5 minutes ago, Bigtrain333 said:

No but he wanted more NIL and it wasn't offered. He didn't tell coaches he was leaving.

I guess no more NIL is a way to say for some one to move along

Edited April 3 by NWALA Tiger

[keeperoftheplains 131]

8 minutes ago, Bigtrain333 said:

He didn't tell coaches he was leaving.

That's disappointing.  To be fair, I did some disappointing things when I was 21 too.

[WarEagle1983 2,185]

4 hours ago, Potatooooooes!! said:

This is my rather uninformed opinion, so if I'm wrong people can teach me why, but I've felt we could use some upgrades on the team for a bit now. We need to go out and get the BEST players possible now

You're correct. We need to be targeting more top guards. I understand Bruce's philosophy of going after players in lower-level conferences. It's worked out great for most positions except for the guard positions. During March we need guys who can go get a bucket and have a high IQ to understand time and game situations. Imagine if we would've had a transfer like: Max Abmas (Oral Roberts), Tyler Perry (N. Texas)  Mark Sears at PG. Many of the guards we've gotten from the portal are solid backups. As a program, we should be at the point where we can aim for the top talent. Just my 2 cents though. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,671]

4 hours ago, nthemix said:

shaping up to be a dramatically different roster next year but with NIL & open transfer portal I guess this will be every year going forward

 

It’s shaping up to be a different roster bc Auburn is showing players the door. Has negative to do with NIL/TP

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,671]

2 hours ago, keeperoftheplains said:

That's disappointing.  To be fair, I did some disappointing things when I was 21 too.

I don’t understand why he would at that point tbh. You’re not asking for a raise and then returning after you’re told no…your employer certainly doesn’t expect you back (esp when they’ve been recruiting your replacement VERY actively) 

[GTNupe11 2,034]

Hate to see it, but, he was probably looking at another season as backup PG. We do need to upgrade at the PG position. Need someone who can go and score when we need them to. Loved watching Tre but we will likely upgrade. Only thing I hate about NIL and the transfer portal (mostly football on this point) is that you used to be able to follow a guy's recruitment from high school and then see them develop their game in college. Now you're lucky if a guy you brought in even stays around long enough to remember their name (mostly football because I couldn't tell you who is or who isn't on the team now).