JP Pegues, a guard for the SoCon first team, transfers from Furman to Auburn.
JP Pegues, a guard on the first team of the All-Southern Conference and a Furman transfer, declared his commitment to Auburn on social media on Friday.
Pegues explained his choice to On3’s Joe Tipton, saying, “I chose Auburn because of their conviction and the vivid vision that they had for me.” “I also appreciate that they function in a family-oriented setting, which was very important to me. Last but not least, Auburn has a successful program and one of the top defenses in the nation.
Auburn was actively looking for a playmaking point guard through the transfer portal. This season, Bruce Pearl has said often that his point guards, Tre Donaldson and Aden Holloway, are excellent at setting up the offense and maintaining effective assist-to-turnover ratios.
However, they were never reliable scorers. In the portal, Auburn targeted a number of point guards who scored a lot of points.
They acquired one in Pegues, who concluded the 2023–24 campaign with an average of 18.4 points per game, including 83 3-pointers for a 36% shooting efficiency. Pegues contributed 4.8 assists per game as well.
Pegues made his debut for Auburn earlier in the season when the team played Furman in a closed-door scrimmage right before the season began.
In the opening round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, Furman defeated Virginia as the number-four seed, and they had probably witnessed Piegues’ most well-known shot to date—a 3-pointer that he made right before the buzzer.
The 185-pound, 6-foot-1 guard also averaged two assists per game compared to two turnovers.
Pegues, a native of Nashville, is still eligible for one more year.
After visiting South Carolina, he paid a formal visit to Auburn in the beginning of April. Pegues maintained communication with a number of other SEC schools, including Arkansas, Oklahoma, LSU, and Missouri, both current and prospective.
Pegues’ arrival is significant for the Tigers, who had lost to Yale in the NCAA Tournament’s first round and have seen two point guards, Tre Donaldson and Aden Holloway, go through the transfer portal since Auburn’s season concluded.
Tahaad Pettiford, a 5-star prospect from Auburn who is rated as the best point guard in the 2024 recruiting class, will currently work with Pegues. Pearl has stated that Pettiford won’t only be a point guard, therefore Pegues may end up starting at the number one spot for Auburn.
