Auburn’s Broome Could Be Snubbed For Player of the Year Award

Auburn’s Johni Broome has already won a lot of awards in 2025: SEC Player of the Year and NCAA College Basketball All-America First Team, most notably. But, there is still one individual award that Broome can earn that hasn’t been given out yet. That is the Naismith College Player of the Year Award.

While there are five names in the power rankings for the award, there are only two real candidates for the award. First is Broome. The other is the No. 1 Duke Blue Devils’ Cooper Flagg. The other names that have been mentioned around the previous two are the Florida Gators’ Walter Clayton Jr., the Purdue Boilermakers’ Braden Smith, Zakai Zeigler from the Tennessee Volunteers and the Memphis Tigers’ P.J. Haggerty.

 

In the regular season, Broome led Auburn in all categories except steals which he was fifth. Broome’s final regular season stats were 18.6 points per game, 10.6 rebounds per game, 3.3 assists per game, 0.8 steals per game and 2.4 blocks per game. Compared to the Duke freshman, Flagg led his team in all categories. Flagg had 19.4 points per game, 7.6 rebounds per game, 4.2 assists per game, 1.5 steals per game and 1.3 blocks per game. Comparing their stats is almost a joke. The two are so similar that you can’t separate them.

 

The Tigers have played in a much more difficult conference. According to Joe Lunardi, the SEC could be sending 12-13 teams to the NCAA Tournament depending how their bubble teams play in the SEC Tournament. That is not the case for the ACC.

 

They might only be sending a few teams. It looks like three, no more than four teams from what is usually a dominant basketball conference. Speaking of the ACC and tournaments, the ACC Tournament was not very kind to Duke or Cooper Flagg and could affect his placement in the Naismith.

 

Flagg landed on a Georgia Tech player’s foot in Duke’s first game. He didn’t return and his status is unknown for the rest of the tournament. Duke is a lock for the NCAA Tournament, but with Flagg hurt, an upset could be brewing in both tournaments. It might also spell the end of Flagg’s chance for the Naismith. Only time will tell whether he can play.