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Myron Medcalf
Auburn star Tahaad Pettiford, an SEC participant of the 12 months contender in 2025-26, was arrested early Saturday morning on a DUI cost in Lee County, Alabama, in response to jail logs.
Pettiford was nonetheless in custody with a $1000 bond as of late Saturday morning, a supply on the Lee County jail informed ESPN.
“We’re conscious of the state of affairs, and we’ll deal with it internally with Tahaad and his household,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl mentioned in an announcement to ESPN on Saturday. “We take these issues critically and can be taught and develop from it shifting ahead.”
The 19-year-old’s arrest for driving drunk comes simply weeks after he withdrew from the NBA draft. Pettiford, who averaged 11.6 PPG in his freshman season for an Auburn group that secured the No. 1 general seed within the NCAA match and reached the Ultimate 4, is the cornerstone of Auburn’s subsequent chapter following the departure of star Johni Broome.
Following his withdrawal from the draft, Pettiford mentioned he returned to Auburn partly to show that he can compete on the subsequent stage.
“I used to be joyful to undergo the method, getting suggestions from NBA groups,” Pettiford informed ESPN then. “Going again to Auburn is a greater state of affairs for me. I see myself being a better decide subsequent 12 months. It wasn’t 100% this 12 months, so I did not wish to take that probability.”
Though he did not obtain the identical buzz as a number of the prime freshmen within the nation through the 2024-25 season, Pettiford was broadly considered as among the finest younger gamers within the nation.
He is on a brief listing of gamers who will enter the 2025-26 season as a doable preseason All-American. He averaged 15.2 PPG in 5 NCAA match video games.
Previous to his group’s run to the Ultimate 4, Pearl praised Pettiford’s humility and refusal to get upset when he needed to settle for much less taking part in time on a squad filled with prime veterans.
“I suppose some would simply type of anticipate that to be an issue,” Pearl mentioned about Pettiford’s state of affairs in April. “Not a phrase. Not a physique language, shoulder shrug, roll eye ever from Tahaad.”