Jabari Smith wanted to meet face-to-face with Bruce Pearl before he made his long-anticipated decision public.
The consensus All-American and national Freshman of the Year didn’t need to sit down with Auburn’s head coach, but he felt it was not only necessary to talk things through with Pearl, but that it was the right thing to do. When the two met, Smith informed Pearl of what everybody long expected: He was declaring for the NBA Draft, another one-and-done coming through the Auburn pipeline.
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“You think Jabari really needed to come in and tell me he was going to be eligible for the draft? You know, that’s a foregone conclusion,” Pearl said Wednesday.
Both Smith and Walker Kessler met with Pearl about their future endeavors in the last week or so. Smith’s decision was a given; he’s widely projected as a top-three pick in this summer’s NBA Draft and could be selected No. 1 overall. Kessler’s was up in the air after his All-America campaign, but after being named the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year on Sunday in New Orleans, Kessler visited with Pearl, thanked him for everything over the last year and let him know that also planned to make the leap to the NBA.
“He was very grateful for the opportunity at Auburn, and I think it was hard for Walker, because he was very torn about coming back or going in,” Pearl said. “But he’s projected to be a late first-round pick right now, and maybe he can work his way up through workouts and interviews. But he’s put himself in a good spot.”
Pearl on Wednesday, while holding a year-in-review press conference heading into the offseason, reflected on the year that Smith and Kessler graced Auburn’s frontcourt and what the two star big men meant to the program at this juncture of Pearl’s tenure. Smith arrived as the highest-rated recruit in Auburn history, and the five-star “big guard” — as Pearl fondly refers to him — exceeded expectations. Kessler, a former five-star prospect who spent his freshman season at North Carolina, transferred to Auburn last summer and developed into one of the most efficient two-play rim players in college basketball.
Smith led the team in scoring at 16.9 points per game, shooting 42.9 percent from the field and 42 percent from 3-point range, while grabbing 7.4 rebounds and dishing out two assists per game. He was the SEC Freshman of the Year, the program’s second-ever consensus All-American and the national Freshman of the Year, as well. Kessler, after a minimal role at UNC as a freshman, blossomed into a valuable weapon around the basket offensively and the nation’s best defensive player. He averaged 11.4 points—on 60.8 percent shooting—and 8.1 rebounds per game while tying for the national lead at 4.6 blocks per game. He led the nation and set an Auburn single-season record with 155 blocked shots, posted the best single-season block rate (19.1 percent) in at least 12 seasons and led all Division I players in defensive box plus/minus (8.0) while finishing third individually in defensive rating (83.0).
The two formed the most daunting frontcourt in the country this season and the most decorated frontcourt in Auburn history, an achievement that is not lost on Pearl and a testament of just how far the program has come in recent years.
“It’s incredible, because we deal with it all the time and I don’t even mind saying it,” Pearl said. “I’ll say it: If you’re a top-25 high school prospect and you sign with Auburn — let’s say you’re ranked 25th — and you are ranked 25th and you sign with one of the blue-blood programs in our country, you’ve got a better chance of being a McDonald’s All-American going there than you do Auburn.
“That’s just always been the case, and I don’t think that’s ever going to change. But one thing has changed, and that is the recognition that both Walker Kessler and Jabari Smith have gotten at a national level was absolutely out of reach for Auburn basketball. It was just out of reach.”
The duo served as the fulcrum of a historic season on the Plains. Auburn won the regular-season SEC title—its second in five years — while sitting atop the league standings from start to finish and going 15-3 in conference action. Part of that run coincided with a 19-game win streak that saw the Tigers climb to No. 1 in the AP poll for the first time in program history — and hold that spot for several weeks before some late-season struggles. Still, the Tigers earned that SEC title and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, which was the second-best seeding in school history, before bowing out in the second round of March Madness.
While their time together at Auburn was brief, Pearl extolled the value the two All-Americans brought to the program and expressed his gratitude for being able to coach them over the last year, simultaneously developing them for the NBA and putting Auburn in a position to compete on the national stage.
“That’s the biggest thing we’ve tried to do with this program,” Pearl said. “I couldn’t look at kids — I couldn’t look Jared Harper and Bryce Brown in the eye when I recruited them and say you could come to Auburn, you can get to the NBA and win championships. Because we hadn’t yet. And all those guys over the last five years have been able to come here, stay home, win championships and go play professionally. Get their degrees. That’s the foundation we built. And now we’ve got to try to rebuild. When you lose two great players like Walker and Jabari, it’s obviously going to be challenging, but that’s the beauty of what we’re doing.”
The focus for Pearl and his staff, now that the season is finished, is on retooling that roster. Replacing a pair of All-Americans and first-round draft picks isn’t easy, nor is it familiar at Auburn, but it’s at least an enviable position—and one Pearl will gladly accept as he continues to build a successful program on the Plains. For the first time in Auburn history, the program will likely have two players selected in the first-round of the NBA Draft.
“They’re both ready,” Pearl said.
Smith is a virtual lock to be the highest-drafted player in Auburn history. The Tigers have had four top-five picks all-time: Charles Barkley went fifth overall in 1985, Chuck Person went fourth the following year, Chris Morris went fourth in 1988 and Isaac Okoro was fifth in the 2020 draft.
“Jabari will go in as the best jump-shooting big in college basketball over the last 10 years,” Pearl said. “He demonstrated he could guard one through five, and he’s tough. And he’s mentally tough, too. And he’s confident. And he did it on a big stage. He’s not afraid of the moment. He’ll get stronger as he gets older. He’s 18 years old. How ready is an 18-year-old ready to play in the NBA? That’s the question.
“Just wait until he’s 19. Just wait until he’s 20 and his body just begins to normally mature and develop. He’s the first NBA All-Star that I’ve had. Tobias Harris was close, and Isaac Okoro maybe could get there. But, anyways, he’s an NBA All-Star.”
Kessler, meanwhile, is projected as a mid-to-late pick in the first round, with some projections putting him late in the lottery.
“You know, Walker Kessler is going to jump in there and defensively, he’s going to be able to play with anybody,” Pearl said. “He’s going to be able to move his feet, he’s going to be a problem for those guards. He’s going to protect the rim. He’s going to be able to extend on the perimeter defensively. He’s absolutely going to belong. He’s going to run the floor. He will shoot better in the NBA than he did in college. If Walker would have come back, he would’ve shot 35 (percent) from 3 and 75 (percent) from the free-throw line. And I don’t think there’s any reason why he can’t do those two things at the next level. He’s going to have to improve his low-post game, but there’s not much of a low-post game in the NBA. And while Walker can play more physically, he’s tough. He’s a tough kid. And you can’t be that size and take as much pounding as he took without being tough.
“Neither one of those guys dished out as much physicality, because neither one of them at their size and at their age are overly physical. But they’re tough, and that’ll go a long way.”
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.
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