Meet Auburn's Top Five: Hey, We Know Those Guys
Keeping up with team personnel in college basketball has become a difficult grind since the NCAA opened up the doors to the transfer portal without restriction. Kentucky is one of the teams to profit from the open transfer pipelines; Auburn, too.
Bruce Pearl relies on four Auburn newcomers—three transfers and one freshman—to do most of the scoring for Auburn. They’re new names to the program, but not new names to Kentucky. Throw in the team’s second-leading scorer from a year ago and Auburn’s top five scorers are names from the past.
Let’s run over who they are as we look ahead to Saturday.
Jabari Smith Jr.
#10 | Freshman | Forward | 6-10 | 220
15.8 ppg | 6.3 rpg | 2.1 apg | 43.0 3P%
Junior? He got a daddy named Jabari Smith, too? Jabari Smith is a familiar name to Kentucky Basketball fans. The older Jabari Smith, Jabari Smith Sr., played two seasons at LSU (1998-2000), including two games against the University of Kentucky. In the 1998-99 season, Smith had 11 and 7 in a 26-point loss to sixth-ranked Kentucky in Rupp Arena. A year later, Smith evened the score in Baton Rouge with 10 and 8 in LSU’s defeat of 11th-ranked Kentucky. Smith was matched up against Jamaal Magloire in both instances.
But enough about First Edition Jabari Smith. It’s Junior who needs our complete attention because he’s quite problematic.
Only a freshman, Jabari Smith Jr. leads Auburn in scoring at almost 16 a game. A matchup nightmare, he’s 6-foot-10 with the SEC’s third-best 3-point shooting percentage (44.6%), better than Kentucky’s own Kellan Grady. With a deadly face-up shot that can’t be blocked, Smith spaces the floor and thrives in the pick-and-pop. He’ll attack too, but it’s the unguardable jumper that has Smith in the conversation for the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft, ahead of Duke’s Paolo Banchero in some projections.
Keion Brooks, he’s yours. Jacob Toppin, be ready.
KD Johnson
#0 | Sophomore | Guard | 6-0 | 204
12.8 ppg | 2.6 rpg | 1.4 apg | 66.7 FT%
If you didn’t follow the free agency carousel in SEC Basketball this past offseason, you may be confused to see Georgia’s KD Johnson in an Auburn uniform in 2021-22.
Johnson was a pest in Georgia’s upset of Kentucky last season. You probably remember his deep 3-pointer to spark Georgia’s game-winning run in the final minutes. But after the season, Johnson was one of the many to run from Tom Crean’s program last spring and Bruce Pearl welcomed the SEC All-Freshman guard with open arms. Since then, Johnson has been hitting 3s, getting steals (3rd in the SEC), and bringing the energy to the Tigers’ backcourt.
Johnson will go up against an old friend in Kentucky’s Savhir Wheeler, a fellow Georgia Basketball runaway. Wheeler and Johnson were the Bulldogs’ two leading scorers a season ago.
Walker Kessler
#13 | Junior | Forward/Center | 7-1 | 245
10.3 ppg | 7.4 rpg | 4.2 bpg | 60.8 FG%
Like KD Johnson, Kentucky saw Kessler in another uniform last season. The seven-footer played his first year of college basketball as a North Carolina Tar Heel but wanted a fresh start and a move closer to home after the COVID-restricted 2020-21 season. Auburn picked him up in the transfer portal and the change of scenery paid off for Kessler. The former McDonald’s All-American is playing at an elite level and already has an SEC Player of the Week trophy to show for it. He opened conference play with a triple-double in a win against 16th-ranked LSU, only the second triple-double in the history of Auburn Basketball. He enters Saturday’s game having led Auburn in scoring in the last two with game-highs of 15 and 20 points.
As for last year’s run-in, Kessler played two minutes in the 2020 CBS Sports Classic game between North Carolina and Kentucky. To his credit, he made his one shot attempt, got a rebound, and committed a foul, so he made the most of those two minutes.
Wendell Green Jr.
#1 | Sophomore | Guard| 5-11 | 175
13.1 ppg | 4.0 rpg | 5.1 apg | 86.8 FT%
At point guard, Wendell Green Jr. is another Auburn newcomer with Kentucky history. He hasn’t played against Kentucky in past seasons, but played for Eastern Kentucky last season where he ranked fourth in the OVC in scoring, second in assists, and eighth in steals as a true freshman.
Now Green comes off the bench for Bruce Pearl but still ranks second on Auburn’s team in minutes and scoring behind Jabari Smith. Going into Saturday, Green rides a wave of 10 straight double-digit scoring games.
One more Kentucky connection, Green is a former high school teammate of Keion Brooks at La Lumiere School in Indiana.
Allen Flanigan
#22 | Junior | Guard| 6-6 | 215
7.8 ppg | 3.7 rpg | 1.3 apg | 47.4 FG%
Auburn’s leading returner in points and minutes, Allen Flanigan is the Tiger with the most success against Kentucky in his career. Last year, Flanigan averaged 22 points per game in two games against Kentucky while matched up with Brandon Boston.
First, he had 21 points and nine rebounds in a win in Rupp Arena. Then in the rematch, Flanigan scored another 23 points but Kentucky got the road win to split the series.
Flanigan has only played in six games this season after missing Auburn’s non-conference slate with an Achilles injury.
BONUS REUNION: Dylan Cardwell
Last year, Kentucky’s Isaiah Jackson tried to dunk on Auburn reserve Dylan Cardwell’s face. Cardwell is Auburn’s current second-leading shot blocker, so maybe one of the Wildcats can finish what Jackson started around this time last year.
Go Cats.
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