Auburn’s 2026 basketball season is going to look a lot different, but Steven Pearl is making one thing clear: the Tigers’ direction starts with Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin Overton.
After a frustrating 2025 campaign that ended in the NIT, Auburn is again dealing with major turnover. The roster was already built around a mostly new group last season, and that churn is carrying into 2026 as several expected starters moved on. Even so, Pearl sees two returning pieces who can shape what comes next.
“You can kind of see Tahaad and KO trying to grasp onto that leadership role that we have really been pushing them towards this summer,” Pearl said. “I think they are trying to lead, which has been encouraging.
I think our guys respect them … Those guys understand what we’re doing. I see a different level of maturity up to this point for those two, which is something I would like for them to continue to build off of.”
Pettiford has been part of the program since arriving from New Jersey as a high school signee, and he has become one of the faces of Auburn basketball on the Plains. Now heading into his junior year, he’ll be expected to carry even more weight after already building his reputation through his production.
Overton’s path has been different. He never played for Bruce Pearl before joining Auburn, arriving last season after stops at Drake and Texas Tech. In his first year with the Tigers, he started 36 of the 28 games he appeared in and posted career-best numbers across the board.
With so many key pieces gone, those two are the only major contributors from last season set to return in 2026, and Pearl believes that gives them real ownership of what happens next.
“It’s their team,” Pearl said. “Those are the two guys that came back from last year.
They’ve got to make this team what they want it to be. The best teams we’ve had have been player-led teams.
We, as coaches, can only do so much. The guys that do it internally, that’s when you have something special… I’m looking for them to continue to do that as the summer goes on.”
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For Auburn fans, the broader feeling may have sounded familiar long before the details settled in. They have seen a high-profile eligibility scare turn into a reprieve before, and this one came with the same kind of waiting game attached to a big moment on the schedule. The opponent in the round of 16 only added to the stakes, because the difference between missing out and being available again can reshape everything. [Read more 🡒]