Auburn basketball just got better, and head coach Bruce Pearl probably became a happy man after this latest move, according to ESPN's Jonathan Givony.

“NEWS: Tahaad Pettiford will withdraw from the NBA draft and return to Auburn, he told ESPN. Pettiford had a strong showing at the NBA Draft Combine and will enter his sophomore season as a projected first-round pick in the 2026 draft,” Givony wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Pettiford went through the entire pre-draft process and declared a few days after Auburn's season ended in the Final Four. He worked out in the combine and for several teams, but there was always a split decision on what Pettiford would do. Draft analysts projected that he would be a late first-round pick or early second-round pick.

Pearce noted that if Pettiford was going to be a first-round pick, with the chance of having a guaranteed contract in the NBA.

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Pettiford is now the only player returning from the Auburn team that won the SEC Championship last season. After coming off the bench last year, there's a good chance that Pettiford will be inserted into the starting lineup, and he'll be able to showcase more of his skills in an expanded role. With that, he should also work his way up into being a legit first-round talent in the 2026 NBA Draft.

“He's going to have to play an expanded role, which I know is something that is exciting to him and probably exciting to our fan base, too — because we'll get to see more of him,” Pearl said. “He'll be a starter. There will be more on him.”

Pettiford was third on the team in scoring and first in assists, and played the sixth-most minutes per game. He played one game as a starter last year after Denver Jones was injured.