Auburn Tigers men’s basketball forward Johni Broome won the SEC men’s basketball Player of the Year award, while his coach, Bruce Pearl, earned Coach of the Year honors, the conference announced on Monday.
Broome also earned a spot on the all-conference first team. His teammate, Chad Baker-Mazara, was named third-team all-SEC, and Auburn’s Denver Jones was named to the all-defensive team. Tigers freshman Tahaad Pettiford was named to the all-freshman team.
As the slew of awards indicates, Auburn has had a remarkable season. The Tigers have all but locked up the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament behind a 27-4 record, the top-rated offense in college basketball, a 16-4 record in the first quadrant and a regular season championship in easily the best conference in the country.
For Pearl, it’s his fourth SEC men’s basketball coach of the year award and his second with Auburn (he previously won a pair as head coach of Tennessee). Pearl took over the Auburn job in 2014 and began his tenure with three straight losing seasons. While at some schools that would have been the end of his time on the sidelines, Auburn was a notoriously tough job at the time. The administration kept its patience and was rewarded in year five when the Tigers went all the way to the 2019 Final Four. They could have made it back-to-back trips had the 2020 NCAA Tournament not been cancelled, as Auburn went 25-6 that year and finished second in the SEC.
Over the past four seasons, Pearl and the Tigers have averaged more than 25 wins per year but have not returned. to the Sweet 16.
Auburn basketball star Johni Broome takes aim at the National Player of the Year award
Broome has already earned his conference player of the year award, but it’s between him and Duke’s Cooper Flagg for the national honors.
For the second time in his career, Broome averaged a double-double with 18.6 points, 10.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. The transfer from Morehead State is in his third year with the Tigers and his fifth season of college basketball overall. He’s shot above 50 percent from the field in all five seasons.
Flagg’s numbers are on par with Broome’s, but Flagg has done his work in the ACC, a league that ranks closer in KenPom to the Big West than the SEC. Both players play for teams that are surefire 1 seeds, though Broome wins in the clutch department, helping his team knock off Iowa State, Houston and Tennessee with critical plays in the last minute.
Though voting will be over by the time the NCAA Tournament starts, few would complain if these two settled the debate on the court in April.
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