Tahaad Pettiford had Auburn basketball coaches on eggshells ahead of the deadline to withdraw from the 2025 NBA draft.

After dominating on the first day of the NBA combine, the chances were high for Pettiford to be selected in the second round of the draft.

However, with Pettiford withdrawing from the draft, he is the lone returner on a roster with 10 new players on it.

Men’s basketball associate head coach Steven Pearl spoke on Pettiford coming back to practice last week at Wednesday’s AMBUSH event.

“The fact that Tahaad ultimately decided to come back to Auburn, we were thrilled, because it changes the dynamic of our team and the trajectory of our team. We had him last week for practice, and it was great to have him back,” Pearl said.

“It changed everything for us. Practice was a lot different, having him on the floor. We’re obviously excited to have him back in an Auburn uniform next season.”

Pettiford averaged 11.6 points per game as a freshman and will enter the 2025 season as the starting guard.

Auburn added frontcourt players like KeShawn Murphy, Emeka Opurum, Sebastian Williams-Adams and Serbian big Filip Jovic.

The backcourt will feature incoming freshmen Kaden Magwood, Simon Walker and Pettiford. On the wings the Tigers added Keyshawn Hall, Kevin Overton, Elyjah Freeman and Abdul Bashir.

“With so many new guys, there’s a lot to learn and a lot to teach. We didn’t have Tahaad for those first three weeks to kind of help some of those guys come along,” Pearl added. “So, everything was brand new as far as what we do offensively, defensively. It was really just doing the basics the first couple of weeks. Just trying to get guys up to speed.”

“Tahaad being in practice last week really helped, because we had someone out there who knew what he was doing on both ends of the floor. That obviously helps speed things along.”

Pearl also elaborated on how defensively this group will be a lot more versatile than last year’s Final Four team.

“A lot of challenges on both ends of the floor. But I feel like this is a team that BP will enjoy working with, because he’ll be able to press a little bit more with his group,” Pearl said. “And that’s not something that we’ve been able to do, because the last couple of years, we’ve been a little bit bigger and slower. We haven’t been able to get up and press into people and create some offense from our defense.”

“It’s a group that, you know, will make a few more mistakes — but I think we’ll cause some more turnovers and get the pace going up and down, which I think will be beneficial.”

Jerry Humphrey III covers Auburn sports forAL.com. You can follow him on X at @Jerryhump3or email him at [email protected].