Basketball News: 6-30-2026

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Auburn Basketball News: 6-30-2026

World traveler: Auburn men's basketball GM Brian Kloman:
https://auburntigers.com/news/2026/06/29/world-traveler-auburn-mens-basketball-gm-brian-kloman

Here’s why the 2026-27 Auburn basketball roster could send multiple Tigers to the NBA:
https://www.al.com/auburnbasketball/2026/06/heres-why-the-2026-auburn-basketball-roster-could-send-multiple-tigers-to-the-nba.html

Blue-Chip Point Guard Down to Six Schools, Auburn in the Running:
https://www.si.com/college/auburn/basketball/recruiting-kevin-savage-auburn-in-the-running

Former Auburn standout staying with the Brooklyn Nets:
https://www.al.com/sports/2026/06/former-auburn-standout-staying-with-the-brooklyn-nets.html

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World traveler: Auburn men's basketball GM Brian Kloman

By Jeff Shearer

General manager Brian Kloman joined the Auburn men’s basketball program as the Tigers advanced to the NIT Final Four.

Indianapolis was the perfect place for Kloman to dive into his new job, with agents aplenty in town for the NIT and NCAA championships.

“Trying to put together the best team we possibly can for the Auburn faithful,” Kloman told Andy Burcham on the Talking Tigers podcast. “The coaches were wearing two hats for sure.”

Two days after Auburn defeated Tulsa to win the NIT championship, Kevin Overton announced he would be back for the 2026-27 season. Tahaad Pettiford followed soon after.

“Not many people can return a backcourt as talented as those two,” Kloman said. "Once KO came back and Tahaad came back, it made everything easier. We’re in good hands with those guys as our leaders.”

On the morning Kloman visited with Burcham in Auburn’s brand lab, he’d already made 25 calls. A day in the life of a relatively new position in college basketball, a result of the arrival of the NIL and revenue share eras.

“Anything I can do to make their lives easier,” Kloman said of his quest to assist head coach Steven Pearl and the Tigers’ assistants.

The son of a college basketball coach, Kloman grew up in Ashville, North Carolina, and was a student assistant and support staffer at Tennessee, where his dad was on the coaching staff for eight seasons prior to Bruce Pearl’s arrival in 2005. After BP arrived, he thanked the former coaching staff for helping build the program.

“I’d never seen anything like that,” said Kloman, whose Tennessee roommates, Dane Bradshaw and Chris Lofton, later told him how much they enjoyed the camaraderie that Bruce Pearl developed.

Twenty-one years, Steven Pearl invited Kloman, then the GM at Louisville, to come to the Plains.

“It was awesome to get a call from him,” Kloman said. “It was something I’d been thinking about for a long time.”

Like Steven Pearl, growing up around the game made Kloman want to pursue a career in basketball.

“I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if it wasn’t basketball,” Kloman said. “Basketball has always driven me. It was always in my blood.”

Kloman paid his dues, coaching eight years at the Division-II, D-III and NAIA levels before founding a recruiting service that proved instrumental in his ascension to D-I.

“The more people you help, the farther you end up getting in life,” Kloman said. “I’ve always lived by that.”

One of the people Kloman helped was Pat Kelsey, then the associate head coach Xavier. After Kloman landed D-I assistant coaching jobs at NC Central and Tennessee Tech, he joined Kelsey at Winthrop when the latter accepted his first head coaching opportunity.

For the next 13 years, from Winthrop to College of Charleston to Louisville, where they quickly returned the Cardinals to prominence, Kloman was Kelsey’s right-hand man.

“That’s like my best friend and brother,” Kloman said. “Then I got a call to be part of the best staff in the country at Auburn. You can’t find a better staff in the country, not only as people, but in terms of what they’ve accomplished: two Final Fours, NBA player after NBA player who wasn’t highly rated. It’s been an awesome time since I’ve been here.”

Beginning at Winthrop, Kloman developed a knack for recruiting international players. Back then, only a few programs pursued players around the globe. Now, most high majors recruit internationally.

“The international world has changed a lot but I’m really confident in the relationships I’ve been able to amass over the last few years,” he said. “We’re not going to leave any rock unturned to give Auburn the best chance to win we possibly can.”

Auburn, says Kloman, offers much to players who grew up elsewhere.

“This is an international haven,” Kloman said. “They want safety, they want good people. I think there’s a whole niche here that international kids are going to love this community.”

While his primary role is to help Auburn assemble the most talented roster possible, that’s only part of the winning formula. The rest begins to take place during early morning summer conditioning.

“If you don’t love each other, it doesn’t matter,” Kloman said. “We’re putting ourselves in hard positions and figuring it out together.”

Kloman calls it “winning the margins,” finding ways to separate Auburn from its SEC competitors in a league where everyone invests in building talented teams.

“We have to be elite in the margins, the blocked shots, the turnover percentage,” he said. “The way you do that is you get longer, you get more athletic. We’re trying to combine the margins with the skill, then we’ve got something really special.”

On Father’s Day, Bruce Pearl texted Auburn’s coaching staff with a reminder that even in the new era, relational still triumphs over transactional.

“Spending time with these guys is the key,” Kloman said. “It’s old school Don’t forget they need us.

“The people who bring themselves together the fastest, sacrifice, learn each other and accept each other are the ones that in January and February, it’s going to mean more. Can’t let your buddy down. That’s where we’re going to get. Once you can’t let your buddy down, it’s on. It’s fun.”

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Here’s why the 2026-27 Auburn basketball roster could send multiple Tigers to the NBA

By Jerry Humphrey III
al.com

Auburn basketball coach Steven Pearl faces heightened expectations for the 2026-27 campaign.

After missing the NCAA tournament in his first season at the helm of the program, Pearl built this season’s team with two overseas NBA caliber prospects.

French big man Narcisse Ngoy was selected by the Los Angeles Clippers with the 57th overall pick in last week’s NBA draft. However, Ngoy confirmed that he will be joining the Tigers this fall.

“I am thankful for the LA Clippers’ confidence in me,” Ngoy said on social media. “I fully intend to honor my commitment to Auburn University, and I am looking forward to wearing the Auburn Tigers jersey for the 2026-2027 season.”


Lithuanian guard Mantas Rubštavicius was a part of the 2024 Golden State Warriors summer league team. His signing with Auburn finally became official last week, and he is the final addition to a Tigers roster with eight new players.

“He has earned a reputation as a selfless teammate, high-character individual and proven winner who has consistently contributed to successful teams throughout his career,” Pearl said. “Mantas embodies the qualities we prioritize in our program -- skill, toughness, competitiveness and character.”

Aside from the international signings, Auburn has also signed transfers Bukky Oboye (Santa Clara), Owen Freeman (Creighton), Thomas Dowd (Troy), Adam Olsen (South Alabama) and George Kimble III (Vanderbilt), and 3-star wing Caleb Williams from the high school ranks.

This year’s roster has the perfect blend of size in the frontcourt, shooting on the perimeter and veteran experience. Auburn retained Tahaad Pettiford, Kevin Overton, Simon Walker and Blake Muschalek from last year’s roster to further support the backcourt.

https://x.com/aldotcomTigers/status/2055299809838518397?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2055299809838518397%7Ctwgr%5E9e62257f55ef8b2cc868449a5357014fd1cae5a7%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.al.com%2Fauburnbasketball%2F2026%2F06%2Fheres-why-the-2026-auburn-basketball-roster-could-send-multiple-tigers-to-the-nba.html

With Pettiford and Overton also sharing NBA aspirations alongside some others on the team, this season for Pearl’s group should look completely different from the 2025-26 season.

Despite sending both Keyshawn Hall and KeShawn Murphy to the NBA this past year as undrafted free agents, a successful 2026 for Auburn could see several Tigers get their names called during the 2027 NBA Draft.

Auburn began preparation for the 2026-27 season earlier this month. The Tigers will also travel to Greece for their foreign tour this August.

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Blue-Chip Point Guard Down to Six Schools, Auburn in the Running

By Brooks Crew
Auburn Tigers on SI

In a time when the Auburn Tigers have been absolutely dominant in football recruiting, it can be easy to forget that Steven Pearl and company over in the Tigers’ basketball program are also hard at work as they look to build a roster for their future.

The Tigers are certainly well-poised as far as big man depth goes, but they have only signed one true guard in the last cycle: three-star combo guard Caleb Williams.

That could change in the 2027 class, though, as on Thursday, it was announced that Kevin Savage, a four-star point guard, was down to his top six schools, and Auburn made his list. He also announced his official commitment date, which is set for July 5.

https://x.com/JoeTipton/status/2070628374284775560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2070628374284775560%7Ctwgr%5Eba4b11d82c02a4f7ca03372fe151c7e1709c402a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.si.com%2Fcollege%2Fauburn%2Fbasketball%2Frecruiting-kevin-savage-auburn-in-the-running

A blue-chip prospect, Savage is currently rated as the ninth-best point guard in the 2027 class as well as the sixth-best player from his home state of Georgia. Savage plays for the Wheeler Wildcats in Marietta, who finished the 2025 season as the No. 1 team in the state of Georgia.

As it stands, Savage is down to just Auburn, Purdue, Georgia Tech, Georgia, Florida State and UCLA. Notably, he has only officially visited Purdue and Cincinnati, though the Tigers have been in on his commitment since 2023.

Currently, Auburn’s offense is led by Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin Overton, but both are rapidly running out of eligibility. Depending on how the NCAA’s new eligibility ruling takes effect, Overton is either in his final or second-to-last season, while Pettiford is in his second-to-last year of eligibility. Of course, either could head to the NBA before their eligibility is up, which is certainly something to keep in mind.

As the Tiger stars’ eligibility continues to fade, though, the time has come to begin to figure out who will fill their shoes in the coming years. Savage could be a top-level option for the Tigers down the road, though they will have to work if they want to wrestle him away from the other five schools that are surely heavily involved in his recruitment.

The Tigers are certainly poised well for the next couple of years, between Pettiford and a host of top-level signees from the transfer portal and overseas this year, but the recruiting grind can never stop if the Tigers are looking to get back to 2024 form and avoid a repeat of the disappointment that was the 2025 season.

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Former Auburn standout staying with the Brooklyn Nets

By Mark Inabinett
al.com

After impressing in a late-season audition, forward/center Chaney Johnson signed a two-way contract with the Brooklyn Nets for the 2026-27 NBA season on Monday.

On the day before the start of NBA free agency, Johnson chose to accept the Nets’ two-way contract offer after earning playing time with Brooklyn last season in the same way.

Johnson joined the Nets on a two-way contract on Dec. 26 and averaged 14.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.0 blocks per game in 24 games for Long Island Nets of the NBA Gatorade League before being called up to Brooklyn.

In 17 NBA games, the rookie averaged 8.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 20.5 minutes of playing time. Johnson made 65.6 percent of his 2-point shots.

On March 16, Johnson posted his career high with 17 points in a 114-95 loss to the Detroit Pistons. He had a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds in a 136-101 loss to the Toronto Raptors on April 12.

A two-way contract allows a player to move between an NBA team and its NBA Gatorade League affiliate without needing to pass through waivers while earning the same pay in both leagues. Each team can carry three two-way players who may appear on the active roster of the NBA team for as many as 50 games.

For the 2026-27 season, two-way contracts are worth $679,042, with $91,000 guaranteed at signing.

A standout at Thompson High School in Alabaster, Johnson won the Gulf South Conference Player of the Year Award for the 2022-23 season at Alabama Huntsville.

Johnson played 73 games across two seasons at Auburn. In the Tigers’ 2024-25 Final Four campaign, he averaged 9.1 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game.

The Nets also announced on Tuesday that Johnson would play for Brooklyn’s summer-league team next month. The Nets play in the California Classic on July 4 and 5 in Sacramento and July 6 in San Francisco before going to the NBA Summer League 2026, which starts on July 9. Brooklyn will play at least five games during the 11-day Las Vegas league.

Also playing for the Nets this summer is former Alabama standout Grant Nelson, who played in four games as a rookie for Brooklyn last season.
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