Lebo welcomed five eligible scholarship newcomers – freshman Frankie Sullivan and junior college transfers Tay Waller, Francis Aihe, Johnny Lett and Brendan Knox. Tony Neysmith, a transfer from Oklahoma, and Brandon McGee, a transfer from Indiana, practiced with the team for the first time but are not eligible this season because of NCAA transfer rules.
The newcomers joined seniors Korvotney Barber, Quantez Robertson and Rasheem Barrett and juniors Lucas Hargrove and DeWayne Reed.
“We will move a little slower this year, obviously, with new guys and a lot of new faces,” Lebo said Saturday. “We started on our simplistic offensive sets. Defensively, we will concentrate on mechanics and start on the infancy part of our man-to-man defense.”
Lebo, going into his fifth Auburn season, said he believes his players are determined to get Auburn basketball moving again after five consecutive seasons of losing SEC records.
“I love the way how the team has meshed and how hard they have played,” Lebo said. “They want to win. We have to run a six-minute mile to make the team, and this is the first time everybody made it. They are doing a lot of stuff together. I like where we are.
“We will see what happens with our cohesiveness once the games start. That is the true test for your team when playing time is determined and all kind of different things happen. It is all because of that. … I like where we are right now with our depth. I think we will be able to play a lot of different people this year.”
Auburn plays its only exhibition game against Morehouse Nov. 7 before playing its season opener at home against Missouri State Nov. 14.
Season tickets are on sale for the 19-game home portion of the schedule for $199. Single-game adult tickets are $10 for non-conference games and $15 for all SEC games except Alabama. Tickets for that game are $20.
Two mini-SEC ticket packages for $50 each are available with the Orange pack consisting of the Alabama, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State and Arkansas games and the Blue pack consisting of the Florida, Tennessee, Ole Miss and LSU games. Non-conference single-game tickets will go on sale Dec. 1. There will be no admission charge for the exhibition game.
Holiday game student section seats for non-students are $5 each for the Tulane, Alabama State, Alabama A&M and Southeastern Louisiana games. The Family Fun Zone for upper sections 17-26 are $10 each and are available for all SEC home games except for the Alabama game.
Fun Zone tickets consisting of 311 seats are sold on game day only at the box office. Group tickets of 20 or more tickets are available for $5 each for all games except for Alabama with a required advance purchase.
