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Auburn senior small forward Alan Flanigan is out indefinitely as the program opens preseason practices.
The veteran will be away from the team dealing with a personal family matter, coach Bruce Pearl announced Tuesday, a day after the team began practice for the upcoming season. It’s unclear how long Flannigan will be out, with Pearl indicating that there is “no time frame right now” for his return to practice.
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The 6-foot-6, 220-pound winger has played in 80 games over the past three seasons for Auburn, averaging 7.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game for his career. Flannigan enjoyed a breakout sophomore campaign in 2020-21 as he started all 27 games for the Tigers, averaging 14.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.9 assists.
He looked poised to form last season, but he partially tore his Achilles tendon in an incident outside of basketball and was sidelined for three months after surgery. Flanigan returned to the lineup when Auburn played Murray State before Christmas, but struggled to return after surgery.
After returning last season, he appeared in 20 games, averaging just 6.3 points on 39.5 percent shooting and a paltry 20.5 percent from 3-point range. He averaged 3.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game for an Auburn team that was ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll for the first time in program history, went wire-to-wire to win the SEC regular-season title and was ranked No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.
After the season, Flannigan tested the NBA draft waters and was one of 44 players to receive an invitation to the NBA G League Elite Camp. He scored 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting, pulled down seven rebounds and dished out four rebounds in two scrimmages in camp but did not receive a call to the NBA draft combine. Flanigan worked out for a few NBA teams after the combine. But he ultimately withdrew his name from the draft pool and opted to return to Auburn for his senior season.
Flannigan showed glimpses of his old self during Auburn’s winter trip to Israel, where the team played three exhibition games against international competition.
“It’s a lot better physically,” Pearl said. “He’s about to get back to 100 percent physically, and I think that’s where you have to evaluate him. Your strength, your size, your athleticism, the physicality of the game — and then when you take some of that away, he’s not going to be the same player until you get all of that back, and I think he’s very close. Back to where it was before the injury or exactly where it was.
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter. @Tomas_Verde.
