Auburn will lose Mustapha Heron, but Austin Wiley, Bryce Brown and and Jared Harper will return to the Tigers

The Auburn Tigers were hit with a double whammy of news on Tuesday that will have a major effect on the 2018-19 men’s basketball season. The Tigers will retain Austin Wiley, Jared Harper and Bryce Brown. However, star Mustapha Heron is set to transfer from the program.

The triple threat of Wiley, Harper and Brown announced their returns to the Auburn program on various social media channels.

In the case of Brown and Harper, this is terrific news for Auburn. The duo were the 2nd- and 3rd-leading scorers for Bruce Pearl’s Tigers squad this season, averaging 15.9 and 13.2 points per game respectively. In the case of Wiley, he didn’t play a second for Auburn this past season due to the FBI investigation surrounding corruption in college basketball. His eligibility was in question, so Auburn held him out for the entire year. But after flirting with the NBA Draft, he’s decided to come back to the Tigers program.

Meanwhile, Mustapha Heron will no longer play at Auburn. CBS’ Gary Parrish reported that Heron will be seeking a hardship transfer, and is currently expected to play for either the UConn Huskies or St. John’s Red Storm.

According to Parrish’s story, this is due to the fact that his mother has unfortunately fallen ill. Obviously, we wish him and his family our best wishes, and we hope that everything comes together.

Heron was the leading scorer for Auburn a season ago, putting up 16.4 points per game while shooting 43.9 percent from the field. He also averaged 5.3 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game, as well. Replacing him will take a lot of effort, but Auburn luckily didn’t take as harsh of a hit as they could’ve on Tuesday.