ATLANTA — A heavy Auburn crowd, loud and raucous all game inside State Farm Arena, suddenly fell quiet.
Johni Broome, the Auburn star and SEC Player of the Year, was grimacing on the floor, holding his right arm. It looked bad, both in the short term against Michigan State and, should they survive the night, in the long term for the No. 1 seed Tigers’ greater championship hopes.
The tension felt like it wouldn’t ever let up, cut up only by a young boy close to courtside yelling, with a deep Southern accent, “Hope you’re Oh-kay, Johni.” As Broome walked off the court into the locker room, he mouthed “I’m done” to his teammates.
Auburn had dominated the game from the start, led by Broome’s 20 points and 12 rebounds in the first 30 minutes of the game, but it felt potentially perilous without Broome against Tom Izzo’s Spartans that were never going to give up. The Tigers held a 10-point lead with less than 11 minutes left in the game, but could it hold up against a charging Jase Richardson and Co.?
Izzo was no doubt begging that it wouldn’t, but there was no panic from Auburn. The Tigers had been in this position before. No, it wasn’t with a Final Four on the line, but Broome went down in the second half against South Carolina on Jan. 11 with a sprained left ankle and the Tigers still rallied to beat the Gamecocks. Auburn won its next two games, both against ranked SEC opponents, giving the team confidence it could book a ticket to San Antonio even without its star big man.
“Our guys were more worried if he was OK and less so are we going to be able to win without him,” said Auburn associate head coach Steven Pearl. “We knew we could beat Michigan State without him.”
Said Auburn guard Chad Baker-Mazara: “That built a little fire in us seeing our guy go down. The guys took pride in that and the bigs stepped up big time.”
More than five minutes of game play later, there was Broome, doing his best Willis Reed impression, coming out to the team bench. The Tigers held serve in his absence – both teams scored seven points in the five minutes he was out – and maintained the 10-point lead.
Broome sidled up to the younger Pearl and told him, “I can play if you need me.”
Before Pearl could even process what Broome was saying, center Dylan Cardwell asked for a substitution and Broome was at halfcourt ready to check back in.
The crowd grew louder and louder as it recognized what was happening. On his second play back on the court, Broome grabbed a one-arm rebound, raced down the floor and then hit a three-pointer to give Auburn a 60-48 lead with 4:40 remaining in the game, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Any genuine chance Michigan State had of pulling off the comeback died the moment Broome’s shot fell through the net.
“We knew he was going to come out there with aggression because I know Johni,” Baker-Mazara told CBS Sports. “He never likes to go down. I saw it in his face. He told me I got you, don’t worry.”
Auburn held off Michigan State, winning 70-64, to give the program its second ever Final Four appearance, both achieved under head coach Bruce Pearl. The No. 1 overall seed in the tournament will get a rematch against Florida, a team that it lost to, 90-81, back on Feb. 8th.
Broome led the way with a game-high 25 points and 14 rebounds while freshman guard Tahaad Pettiford was the only other Tiger in double-digits with 10 points. Michigan State wanted to take away Auburn’s three-point shooting and accomplished that — the Tigers went 7 of 25 for a measly 28 percent — but had no answer for Broome. When it was all over, Izzo marveled at how effortlessly Broome moved on the court, calling him “the real deal.”
“That’s why he’s an All-American,” Izzo said. “That’s why he’s a Player of the Year candidate. Did a helluva job.”
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Whether Sunday’s injury will impact Broome moving forward will be a big question for the Tigers ahead of Saturday’s semifinal against the Gators (6:09 p.m. ET on CBS). During any break in play, Broome could be seen holding his right arm and grimacing, clearly still in pain. In the locker room after the game, he had an ice pack on his elbow and then spent a few minutes getting his arm wrapped up by a trainer.
Broome was mostly mum on details about how the injury happened or what it could mean moving forward. Even before the injury everyone saw on the court, Broome had a trainer look at his right arm after subbing out of the game. An in-game MRI determined there was no serious damage, according to Broome, but Pearl expected to know more about the specific diagnosis tomorrow.
“Whether it’s a slight hyperextension or whatever it was, obviously the doctors were able to determine there was no damage,” Pearl said. “I bet you it will be pretty sore tomorrow, though.”
Whatever the diagnosis will be, this team is ready for San Antonio. It has perhaps the most underrated big man in the country in Cardwell. It has guards like Pettiford, Baker-Mazara and Denver Jones — guys who can get hot at any moment and go on personal 10-0 runs. This team is athletic, talented and again looking like it did when it was the No. 1 team in the country with a 27-2 record back in early March.
Auburn overwhelmed Michigan State almost from the jump. The Spartans held an 8-6 lead with 15:50 left in the first half, the last time they would ever be ahead of the Tigers. From there, Auburn went on a 17-0 run and before you knew it the score was 23-8 and the Spartans looked finished. It felt like an Auburn home game with the Tigers crowd clearly having an impact on the game, going absolutely wild after the Spartans missed three consecutive three-pointers on a single possession. When Broome ran down the floor and hit a three-pointer to give his team a 15-point lead and celebrated with his “Call God” move, it’s hard to imagine the crowd could have gotten any louder.
“Whenever we hit a shot it felt like we hit 10 shots because of the crowd,” Baker-Mazara said.
“The energy was insane,” Jones said. “I turned around everybody standing up, my ears ringing from how loud it was. I love Auburn, I love the fans.”
Izzo’s group deserves credit for never giving in and going on a few mini-runs to stay in the game, but it could never cut the lead to less than five points after the Tigers’ first-half run. There was a clear talent advantage Auburn possessed that couldn’t be overcome, no matter how badly Izzo was trying to will a team he loved so dearly to a Final Four.
Auburn was inevitable Sunday night, whether it had a healthy Broome or not. A year after getting bounced out in the first round by No. 13 seed Yale, the Tigers were destined for San Antonio, and couldn’t be happier. A crying Bruce Pearl hugged an equally emotional Hugh Freeze moments after it was all over, marveling at what the moment meant for the school.
The Auburn fans in the arena summed the moment up well with their famous chant, “It’s great to be an Auburn Tiger,” with more magical moments still possible for a team that withstood a late March spell and looks as poised as ever, especially if Broome is healthy, to be the first to bring a national championship back to the Plains.
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