Owen Freeman touts ‘emotional’ return to court in Auburn’s season opener

When looking at a basketball team on the court, or a team in any other sport, all looks normal in terms of operation. 

The players are all wearing their jerseys. They all proceed to go through workouts, participate in practice and inevitably get yelled at by their coaches for something that was not happening up to the standard of the team.

Then, with a glance over, there is a player not dressed out, not participating in drills. That player has an injury and is forced to sit out of the action, not getting the full experience of being in the area of play.

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For the Auburn Tigers, that player was Owen Freeman, a 6-foot-10 forward transfer from the Creighton Blue Jays that Head Coach Steven Pearl has been really high on ever since he got him into the program.

Freeman was sidelined throughout a lot of the summer and was very limited during preseason practices with a foot injury. It was a long road ahead for him, but he did what was necessary in recovery to get on track to make an appearance this season.

So to get back on the court for the Tigers’ season opener against Southeastern Louisiana on Wednesday night, it is safe to say a lot was going through his mind when he took the court.

“I was really emotional before the game,” said Owen Freeman. “Kind of just all coming full circle. Auburn recruited me out of the portal, ended up here, and God just has a crazy way of working things out. The journey has been a lot of ups and downs. I was super excited about how things went. I just wanted to go out there and have fun and give it 100%. I'm really happy with the outcome, and I'm excited to go after some more wins.”

This is not the only injury that Freeman has experienced in his college career. During his time at Creighton, the forward was playing a pickup basketball game in his hometown in Illinois when he suffered a knee injury that set him back.

Pearl said that with the way Freeman has worked to get back and the itch he has had to get out on the floor, he was happy for his big man to complete his recovery and do what he does best.

“(I’m) more just happy for him, the young man, because he's such a great kid, such a great kid,” Pearl said. “I just enjoy being around him every day. He wants to win. He wants to get better. He wants to do the right thing for his teammates and those are the types of guys that you can roll with. And just happy that he had a little bit of success tonight.”

Despite only scoring seven points on the night to go along with six rebounds and a block, Pearl liked what he saw in Freeman’s first bout of game action.

Freeman’s size adds an extra layer to the frontcourt, where Auburn has two 7-footers in Bukky Oboye and Narcisse Ngoy that fill things out inside. However, Pearl hopes Freeman continues to add an extra layer of intensity that he as a coach will always welcome.

“It was really great to see him obviously make a layup early and really be active on the offensive glass, having three offensive rebounds,” Pearl said. “I thought he brings a different level of physicality for us, which we need, and you can kind of see in there. I thought defensively he was solid, and I just think he'll just continue to progress as the year goes on and continue to improve.”

Freeman even notched a 3-pointer in there in the win, something that allowed the team and the program’s fans to cheer wildly.

For him, he knows he will try and earn more moments like that.

“That’s more 3’s than I shot all of last year. It felt really good,” Freeman said.

The Tigers will next take on the Appalachian State Mountaineers on Monday, Nov. 10 at 8 p.m. CST inside Neville Arena, a game that Freeman is likely to be featured more in.

Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.