2025-26 is going to be a but of a transition period for Auburn basketball. Months after the Tigers lost a large part of a Final Four team, including star big man Johni Broome, head coach Bruce Pearl also stepped down and appointed his son, Stephen Pearl, as the team's new head coach.

Pearl had already brought in a strong transfer portal class this offseason, so his son didn't have a completely bare cupboard coming into this season. Now, however, he will have to make do without one of his best players in Keyshawn Hall, who is going to miss some time due to an injury to his ankle and foot.

“He is doing good,” Pearl said. “He had an X-ray on his ankle yesterday and an X-ray on his foot today, and what came of that is a lateral ankle and foot sprain. So we don't really have a timetable for return. … We're gonna prepare this week and prepare for next week as if we may not have him.”

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Hall is Auburn's leading scorer by a wide margin so far at 23.3 points per game, and he is also collecting 11 rebounds per game. He was the biggest get out of the transfer portal this season for Auburn after a very productive 2024-25 season at UCF, and he is looking every bit worth the investment so far.

Unfortunately, it sounds like Hall will not be able to go during Thanksgiving week at the Players Era festival, where a lot of the top teams in the nation will be competing against each other. That will be a massive loss for Auburn before some of the toughest games on its non conference schedule against Oregon and Michigan.

The UCF transfer showed out in all four of his outings to start the season, but he was particularly impressive in a 73-72 loss to then-No. 1-ranked Houston on Sunday. In that game, Hall scored a team-high 20 points and added 11 boards as the Tigers nearly knocked off one of the best teams in college basketball.

Thankfully, it doesn't sound like Hall is going to miss too much time, so he should be back and ready to go for the gauntlet that is the SEC slate awaiting Auburn.