Bruce Pearl yearns for the not-so-distant past but is accepting of the current way of life in college basketball.

It was only four years ago that Pearl led Auburn to its first-ever Final Four with a team built, largely, with homegrown talent — guys Auburn signed out of high school and junior college, who spent multiple years together in the same system. Players like Bryce Brown and Jared Harper, Chuma Okeke and Danjel Purifoy, Austin Wiley, Horace Spencer and Anfernee McLemore. That roster had two JUCO transfers in J’Von McCormick and Malik Dunbar, and the lone Division-I transfer was Samir Doughty, who sat out the previous season since the NCAA’s one-time transfer rule wasn’t yet in place.

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Roster construction has changed considerably since then, with the introduction of the transfer portal and one-time transfer waiver. Pearl has shown a willingness to adapt, with Auburn signing five transfers the last two seasons — Walker Kessler, Wendell Green Jr., K.D. Johnson, Zep Jasper and Johni Broome — and two more joining the fold for the upcoming season in FIU guard Denver Jones and UAH forward Chaney Johnson. It’s a different way of doing things, but one that also presents its share of challenges.

“The landscape has changed tremendously,” Pearl said Tuesday in Atlanta before appearing at the first stop on the AMBUSH tour. “It’s changed for everybody; we’re all in the same boat…. The Final Four team was all built on freshmen, sophomores, juniors all growing up and all going together, and I still would prefer to do it that way, but that’s just not the way.”

According to Pearl, since the advent of the transfer portal, teams average 3.5 players per year entering the portal nationally. In Auburn’s case this offseason, three players have to this point either entered the portal or announced their intent to transfer: freshmen Yohan Traore and Chance Westry already went into it and committed elsewhere (UC Santa Barbara and Syracuse, respectively), while reserve big man Stretch Akingbola plans to transfer as a graduate student after completing his undergraduate coursework this summer.

That’s just one piece of Auburn’s current roster makeover, as the Tigers have also seen four players declare as early entrants for this summer’s NBA Draft. All-SEC guard Wendell Green Jr., All-SEC center Johni Broome, starting power forward Jaylin Williams and backup center Dylan Cardwell all filed paperwork for the draft. Green appears intent on starting his professional career no matter what, while Broome and Williams have announced plans to retain their eligibility and potentially return to Auburn for the 2023-24 season. Cardwell is expected to do the same.

Then there’s Allen Flanigan, the senior wing who has yet to announce his plans. Flanigan still has a COVID year of eligibility available, if he chooses to use it. He can either declare for the NBA Draft after graduating in a couple of weeks, or he can return to Auburn for a fifth season or transfer elsewhere for his final year. He’s currently weighing his options.

“That’s seven or eight (players potentially leaving), and I got 13 guys on scholarship,” Pearl said. “So, that’s what pretty much everybody is sort of dealing with. So, it forces us to have to continue really hard in the months of April and May to not only work with your players and help them finish up their spring conditioning and basketball and academics, and figure out what they’re trying to do, as well as then recruit to replace guys you didn’t think you were going to have to replace — and didn’t want to replace.

“There wasn’t any of those guys, really, that I would’ve preferred to look. But the transfer thing swings both ways.”

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To that end, Auburn has already signed a pair of transfer pickups in recent weeks in Jones and Johnson. Jones committed to Auburn during a visit on April 8 and signed the following day. Johnson committed to and signed with the Tigers last Friday, shortly after completing a visit to the Plains. They both address specific roster needs for Auburn as Pearl tries to reload for a run at a third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and chance to contend for SEC and national championships.

“The both share something in common: They’re Alabama kids that were both overlooked, and both got chips on their shoulders,” Pearl said. “They’re both hungry. They both dreamed of someday being at a place like Auburn, and now it’s a reality for them. I’m just so excited about coaching guys who are going to be in the gym every night, who are grateful for the scholarship and for the opportunity.”

Jones is a 6-foot-4 two-guard who was one of the top scorers in the country last season at FIU. He averaged 20.1 points per game last season for the Panthers and was one of just 26 players in Division I who averaged more than 20 points per game. Jones, who started his career at the JUCO level before spending two years at FIU, shot 43.4 percent from the field last season, including 35.7 percent from distance and 86.4 percent from the free-throw line.

While his outside shooting will provide some relief for Auburn on the perimeter, he’s also an incredibly efficiency mid-range scorer, finishing fifth nationally last season in mid-range field goal percentage while earning first-team All-Conference USA honors.

“Denver’s from the same league as Florida Atlantic,” Pearl said. “He was the leading scorer in that league, and that’s a really good league, Conference USA, with Andy Kennedy at UAB, North Texas, Florida Atlantic and Florida International.”

Johnson, meanwhile, comes to Auburn after breaking out at the Division II level. A native of Alabaster who graduated from Thompson High and was overlooked as a recruit, Johnson signed with UAH as a 6-foot-5 combo guard and developed into the Gulf South Conference Player of the Year as a third-year sophomore. He averaged 15.9 points and 6.6 rebounds per game last season and is a career 37.2 percent shooter from 3-point range (despite knocking down just 28.9 percent of his tries last season).

Johnson is now 6-foot-7 and projects as either a wing or athletic power forward in Pearl’s system.

“He’s big enough to play a little bit of an undersized four,” Pearl said. “He’s got real skill. He’s got real athleticism. Look, he played against us last year when we played them, and he played our four-man even. And I think he’s quick enough, and he’s got enough skill that he could play some on the wing, so he’ll play.”

Jones and Johnson join 2023 guard Aden Holloway as incoming additions for Auburn this season. They join a roster that, as of Wednesday, returns guards K.D. Johnson and Tre Donaldson, and forwards Flanigan and Chris Moore. If Broome, Williams and Cardwell all withdraw from the draft and return, that puts Auburn at 10 scholarship players for 2023-24. Walk-on Lior Berman is also expected back with the team for a fifth season, Pearl said Wednesday, and could be a candidate for a scholarship this season.

“I would once again be surprised if we used all 13 scholarships,” Pearl said. “Wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of our walk-ons goes on scholarship this year.”

While the full roster outlook remains fluid, Pearl said he would like to add one or two more transfers this offseason. One of those targets, Florida State wing and former five-star prospect Matthew Cleveland, arrived on campus Wednesday for his visit with the program.

“Auburn is an incredibly special place, and we’ve got a — we’ve worked really hard to establish ourselves as a competitive basketball program,” Pearl said. “And so, we’re just going to bring in really good guys that we think can help us continue to be competitive. (The transfer portal) just forces us to work a little differently.”

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