SEC’s Most Dominant Player Poses Biggest Challenge for Hogs
He’s the best player in the SEC. He might be the top player in all of college basketball. And he’s clearly the heart and soul of the nation’s No. 1 team.
He’s Johni Broome, the guy who was ignored and unwanted by nearly all major colleges. He’s also the guy who might be the greatest prize to ever come out of the transfer portal.
He’s the one Arkansas has to stop Wednesday when the Razorbacks meet No. 1 Auburn on The Plains of Alabama. If coach John Calipari and his Hogs can’t find a way to slow down the tall Tiger, it’ll surely be an unhappy plane ride home to Fayetteville.
Broome is a stat machine. He’s second in the SEC in points (18.1), first in rebounds (10.9), first in blocked shots (2.7) and fourth in field-goal percentage (.503). He even leads Auburn in assists (3.4).
The Hogs’ Zvonimir Ivisic is second in the SEC in blocks (2.0) and might be the first man tasked with slowing Broome’s offensive attack. At 7-foot-2, Big Z has a four-inch height advantage, but Broome is stronger and crafty, especially in the paint area.
Arkansas center Jonas Aidoo will surely log significant minutes to try to counter Broome. Aidoo is 6-foot-11 and earned All-SEC Defensive Team honors a year ago.
Ivisic excels on offense and at blocking shots. He might be able to wear down Broome a bit if he makes the big man chase him on the perimeter while Arkansas uses most of the shot clock. What Ivisic must do is play effective defense without fouling.
Broome is the only player challenging Duke’s hotshot freshman Cooper Flagg for Player of the Year honors. Flagg might have an edge because Duke beat Auburn 84-78 in the ACC/SEC Challenge on the Blue Devils’ home floor.
Flagg had 22 points, 11 boards, four assists, three steals and two blocks in the game. Broome basically matched that with 20 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and a block.
Difference is, Flagg has been considered the best player in his class for about a decade. The frosh was a preseason first-team All-American. He’ll be the first pick in the NBA draft at age 18.
Auburn coach Bruce Pearl talked about his star and Flagg in an article with the The Athletic:
“The beautiful thing about the choice for player of the year is they both took such different paths, and neither path is better than the other,” Pearl said. “Since Flagg was 15 years old we all knew how great he was, and not just because he was so gifted but also because he worked so hard and played so hard.
“And then you’ve got Johni, not ranked, not known, no stars in front of his name. Not one year and then the pros, but five years of college basketball. And here they are, taking completely different paths and actually being in the same spot as players.”
Broome was thrilled to get a scholarship to any Division I school. He planned on Florida Atlantic with current Razorback Johnell Davis, but scholarships were given to others. So, he went to Morehead State.
Everybody knows Morehead State, that powerhouse basketball program located in … you guessed it, Morehead, Kentucky. After two seasons at Morehead State where he was first-team All-Ohio Valley Conference twice, Broome entered the transfer portal.
Now everybody wanted him, including Calipari, then coach of the Kentucky Wildcats. Florida finished second in the Broome sweepstakes because Pearl wooed the native of Plant City, Fla., better than all others.
Broome was terrific from the outset.
“He has to go down as the greatest player of all time ever picked up in the transfer portal at this point,” Pearl told The Athletic.
Pearl is pleased beyond belief that Broome stuck around Auburn for his fifth season, which was granted due to COVID-19. After all, he told The Athletic, his star player could’ve transferred again to great personal gain thanks to NIL money.
“He could have gotten between $200,000 and $400,000 more,” Pearl said. “I don’t mind stating that. He could have.”
Pearl even compared Broome to Larry Bird. He didn’t put his player on that pedestal, but did defend Broome’s supposed lack of athleticism. Still, few have ever compared to Bird, one of the 10 greatest players in basketball history as this video will attest.
“I’ve always said Larry Bird is one of the greatest athletes to play the game of basketball, and Larry Bird couldn’t jump over a line,” Pearl said to The Athletic. “But he had unbelievable balance, hands, timing, vision. All of it was unbelievable. That’s athleticism too. It’s kind of like a golfer who is able to strike the ball a certain way, over and over again.
“Just because Johni Broome can’t jump very high doesn’t make him a non-athlete. There are guys who can jump out of the gym who can’t catch a cold. Johni has a lot of those same traits that make him special.”
Broome is also improving his long-range attack. In the opening minutes of Auburn’s 94-85 win at No. 2 Alabama on Saturday, Broome buried a pair of threes to make it 9-0.
Broome, in his third season at Auburn, led the Tigers in scoring his first year and was the school’s 14th All-American a year ago. He told The Athletic he’d love to be national Player of the Year, but winning the season’s final game is the biggest goal.
No doubt, last season’s shocking first-round exit in the NCAA Tournament with a loss to Yale still haunts Pearl, Broome and the entire Auburn program. Broome contributed 24 points and 13 rebounds but No. 13 seed Yale outscored the No. 4 seed Tigers by nine in the second half.
It won’t be a neutral court when Arkansas (15-10, 4-8 in the SEC) challenges Auburn (23-2, 11-1) on Wednesday but the Razorbacks have their own share of top talent. Question is, will Broome make the difference as he often does?
