AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn has signed one of the top transfer guards in the country in All-Southern Conference First Team selection JP Pegues (pronounced PUH-geez).
The 6-foot-2, 165-pound point guard from Nashville, Tenn., played the last three seasons at Furman, where he averaged 18.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game during his junior campaign. Pegues was the Paladins' leading scorer and top playmaker with a 2.32 assist-to-turnover ratio (144 assists to 62 turnovers). He was also third on the team in steals (35).
Pegues shot 42 percent from the field and 36.2 percent from behind the 3-point arc. He knocked down a season-high 35 points at Western Carolina on Feb. 28 – one of 15 games this past season where Pegues netted 20-or-more points.
"JP is a winner," Head Coach Bruce Pearl said. "He is a scoring point guard that has great ability to shoot the basketball. He can score at all three levels, defend and lead. Talking to several great coaches in the SoCon, they unanimously believed he was the best player in their league this season.
"We have demonstrated a great ability to get into the high levels of mid-major basketball and the transition to Auburn has been great for those who have transferred to our program including Johni Broome, Wendell Green Jr., Denver Jones and Zep Jasper. Associate Head Coach Steven Pearl and the staff did an outstanding job of evaluating talent in the transfer portal. This is a great first step in rebuilding our roster."
Rated No. 28 in the On3 Transfer Portal Player Rankings and the No. 41 overall transfer and No. 11 point guard by 247 Sports, Pegues was named Most Outstanding Player of the 2023 Southern Conference Men's Basketball Championship leading the Paladins to their first league title since 1980.
He made national headlines after scoring 11 points, including the game-winning 3-pointer with two seconds to go in No. 13-seeded Furman's 68-67 win over No. 4-seeded Virginia in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament.