Since Auburn’s season ended in the second round of the NCAA Tournament two months ago, much has been made about the roster rebuild Bruce Pearl faced in the transfer portal this offseason.

While Pearl and his staff have been waiting out the NBA Draft process and working the transfer market to reshape the roster — with a productive addition on the wing still a priority — it has gone somewhat overlooked that the Tigers will be adding to the fold one of the top recruits in program history this upcoming season. Aden Holloway, the lone signee in Auburn’s 2023 class, recently earned composite five-star status and will arrive on campus as the second-highest rated player to ever join the Tigers, behind only Jabari Smith.

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When Holloway committed to Auburn back on Aug. 1, he was still a four-star prospect, even though he was rated as the No. 30 overall player in the class. Since then, his profile has risen following an impressive senior season at Prolific Prep in California.

“His rankings have gone up because of the year he had at Prolific (Prep),” Pearl said Monday at his 10th annual Fore the Children charity golf event on Lake Martin. “He’s gotten a little bigger. He’s competed well at those higher levels. That’s what we hoped: We hoped a guy that we would sign or commit, a year later, would be showing that he’s moving up the rankings. I think it shows you we made a good decision there.”

Holloway is now rated as the No. 17 overall prospect in the 2023 class, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings, clocking in with a 0.9931 composite ranking. Smith, the No. 7 overall recruit in the 2021 class who went on to win National Freshman of the Year and earn consensus All-America status before being selected third overall in last year’s NBA Draft, had a 0.9980 overall rating. The next-closest signee in program history is Sharife Cooper, who had a 0.9920 rating.

That puts Holloway in rarefied air when it comes to Auburn basketball, and he’s just the fourth five-star recruit to sign with the program out of high school. All four have come during Pearl’s tenure, as the veteran head coach has now been responsible for landing each of the nine highest-rated high school signees in Auburn history and 11 of the top-12 all time.

The 6-foot-1 guard, who is originally from Charlotte, should have a significant impact for Auburn as a freshman — especially as the Tigers move on from All-SEC point guard Wendell Green Jr., who declared for the NBA Draft after two seasons on the Plains and is ready to begin his professional career, even if it’s not immediately at the NBA level.

“Wendell had a huge imprint on this team,” Pearl said. “Not many Auburn basketball teams have gone back-to-back to the NCAA Tournament and won first-round games, and Wendell’s teams did that — to his credit. I do feel very comfortable with Aden and with Tre (Donaldson), K.D. (Johnson), Denver (Jones), particularly in the backcourt.”

Though he’ll have to earn his spot, Holloway should slot in as Auburn’s starting point guard next season. The McDonald’s All-American’s talent is obviously to the point where he could be the Tigers’ primary ball-handler and floor general as a true freshman. As a senior at Prolific Prep, he averaged a team-leading 18.5 points while dishing out 5.1 assist and pulling down 4.4 rebounds per game.

Pearl feels confident about how he and rising-sophomore Donaldson will complement each other at the one while noting that both players have the versatility to play off-ball as well, with Holloway a proven marksman from distance who should provide a welcome boost to the Tigers’ perimeter shooting.

“Ira Bowman did a great job recruiting Aden, and I think Aden and Tre are going to have a tremendous competition for the starting point guard position,” Pearl said. “They’re both going to play. The good thing is that both are good with the ball and without the ball. That’s going to be fun to watch.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.