AUBURN — Auburn basketball will have a sour taste in its mouth all offseason after it got bounced by Yale in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.

The only thing coach Bruce Pearl and his staff can do is work to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Doing that starts with reshaping the roster. It doesn't have to be a total overhaul — two players from last season's SEC Tournament-winning squad ran out of eligibility (Jaylin Williams and Lior Berman) — but there are certainly places to improve. The first domino fell Tuesday, with senior guard KD Johnson announcing his plans to enter the portal. He likely won't be the last Tiger to take that path.

Auburn will look to backfill any departures with incoming transfers. The Tigers currently have one scholarship open; signees Tahaad Pettiford and Jahki Howard are in line to take the ones vacated by Williams and Berman, so Johnson's exit opens a single spot for now.

Here's a look at three potential portal targets that Auburn could look to bring in:

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Clifford Omoruyi (Rutgers)

The Tigers may be getting another crack at Clifford Omoruyi.

A former four-star prospect in the Class of 2020 who chose Rutgers over other finalists Auburn and Arizona, Clifford should have some natural familiarity with the Auburn staff that stems from the recruiting process. The Tigers were one of many teams to reach out to the 6-foot-11 Clifford since he entered the portal March 20, according to a report from Joe Tipton of On3 Sports.

Clifford would be a formidable replacement for consensus All-American Johni Broome if Broome opts to pursue a professional career rather than coming back for his final year of eligibility. Clifford, who averaged 10.4 points and 8.3 rebounds last season, isn't an offensive juggernaut, but he strives on the defensive end; Clifford finished the season with a block percentage of 12.8%. That ranks No. 7 nationally amongst all players who played at least 311 minutes during the 2023-24 campaign, per College Basketball Analytics.

Cade Tyson (Belmont)

Unranked by the 247Sports Composite coming out of Carmel Christian School in North Carolina, transfer wing Cade Tyson is one of the best shooters in the portal. Tyson has spent the last two seasons at Belmont, making 44.6% of his 3-pointers on 2.8 attempts per game.

Tyson knocked down 46.5% of his threes last season, and he was getting up more than 5.5 per game.

The 6-foot-7 Tyson would figure to be a perfect fit behind Chad Baker-Mazara at small forward if veteran Chris Moore moves on — that's still to be determined, along with every other player on the roster — and Howard isn't ready to play as a freshman.

Tyson averaged 16.2 points and 5.9 rebounds as a sophomore, proving to be a respectable threat at collecting misses; his defensive rebounding percentage of 16.4% would have been third on the Tigers last season behind Broome (25.8%) and Alabama-Huntsville transfer Chaney Johnson (17.1%).

JP Pegues (Furman)

Furman transfer JP Pegues was one of 49 Division I players to average at least 7.5 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc last season. Of that group, his hit rate of 35.8% ranked No. 28.

Pegues, who is listed at 6-foot-1, would come in as a veteran point guard with one season of eligibility remaining. Pegues used his shooting prowess to average 18.4 points, and he coupled that scoring with 4.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game.

If the Tigers want to dramatically improve their lead guard play, someone such as Pegues, who Jamie Shaw of On3 Sports reported Auburn has made contact with, makes a lot of sense.

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn basketball: Transfer portal targets to monitor for the Tigers