At the end of last season, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl told the Tigers’ All-American big man Johni Broome that he had three options when it came to his future: declare for the NBA Draft, enter the transfer portal or return to Auburn.

But Broome disagreed.

Broome didn’t have three options. He had two options — and hitting the transfer portal wasn’t one of them.

“He said, ‘Coach, the transfer portal is not an option for me. So, really there are only two options,’” Pearl said Monday as he met the media ahead of his Fore The Children Golf Classic at Alexander City’s Willow Point Golf & Country Club.

When it came to the idea of declaring for the NBA Draft, Broome had done that before.

At the conclusion of his sophomore campaign in 2023, Broome declared for the NBA Draft and even earned an invite to the NBA Draft Combine. But after fielding feedback from NBA scouts, Broome decided it was best to return to Auburn in hopes of raising his draft stock.

Despite a junior season that saw him be named a consensus All-American while averaging 16.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, Broome’s draft stock didn’t improve much.

“He probably knew what that was going to look like, even in not a strong draft. He probably was looking at a second-round situation, a two-way contract. Whatever that would be,” Pearl said. “The NBA option was not an option that he wanted to explore right now. He had done that. Even though he had a better year, his draft-stock needle did not move.”

With that option ruled out and Broome never even giving a passing thought to the transfer portal, coming back to Auburn was the only choice left and it was the choice he made, officially, on April 17.

But all along, returning to Auburn was the decision Broome was most interested in, Pearl says.

“Johni wanted to be back. Johni Broome wanted to be back,” Pearl said. “His family wanted him to be back.”

When Pearl met with reporters in a postseason briefing after Auburn’s stunning loss to Yale in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, he never ruled out Broome returning to The Plains for his senior season.

However, attuned to the current landscape of college sports, Pearl knew that NIL would likely be one of the factors Broome weighed before making his decision.

“You’ve gotta weigh what the NIL could be versus what being on a two-way contract or a second round or Europe or things like that,” Pearl said in March. “I think that’s something his family is in the process of doing.”

On Monday, Pearl revisited that as being one of the moving pieces in Broome’s return.

“As far as being in the transfer portal, that just wasn’t an option for him or his family,” Pearl said. “They just wanted to be able to be treated fairly, and I think that the collective treated him fairly. We’re really glad to have him back.”

In returning Broome, the Tigers will have their leading scorer from the 2023-24 season back on their roster.

And with former Auburn forward Jaylin Williams, who became the winningest player in program history last season, out of eligibility, returning a veteran like Broome becomes that much more vital.

Together, Broome, fifth-year senior Dylan Cardwell, junior Chaney Johnson and senior SMU transfer Ja’Heim Hudson will be Auburn’s main rotation in the frontcourt.