Auburn basketball star Tahaad Pettiford was arrested early Saturday morning in Alabama on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office recent arrests database.
Pettiford, 19, was booked into the Lee County Jail at 12 a.m. on Saturday before being released on a $1,000 bond.
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“We are aware of the situation, and we will handle internally with Tahaad and his family,” Auburn men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl said in a statement to Yahoo Sports. “We take these matters seriously and will learn and grow from it moving forward.”
Pettiford’s arrest comes less than two months after he announced he was withdrawing from the NBA draft and returning to Auburn for his sophomore season. The 6-foot-1 point guard averaged 11.6 points and 3.0 assists as a freshman, helping lead the Tigers to an SEC regular season title, a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and a Final Four appearance.
Had Pettiford remained in the 2025 NBA Draft, he was projected to be selected somewhere in the late first or second round. He instead returned to Auburn in hopes of solidifying himself as a 2026 first-round pick while capitalizing on college basketball’s soaring NIL market.
“I was happy to go through the process, getting feedback from NBA teams,” Pettiford told ESPN in late May. “Going back to Auburn is a better situation for me. I see myself being a higher pick next year. It wasn’t 100% this year, so I didn’t want to take that chance.”
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