Atlanta – Johni Broome heard pop.
The Auburn star, Senior – the player of the year of the dry and an All -American from the first team – was seated under the opposing hoop after taking a clumsy fall. The expression on his face was calm, almost quiet, but he rocked his right elbow with his dominant left hand, rubbing it slowly.
After a few moments – or an eternity, for those who applaud the tigers – Broome was helped to go, moving carefully on his left ankle, always tightening his elbow. He headed for the opposite end of the ground, off the field and returned to the locker room.
“He said he had heard something appearing in his arm,” said his father, John, who had met his son when he crossed the tunnel. “I was just praying that everything would be fine.”
There were 10 minutes and 37 seconds left in the match when Broome was released, the seeded n ° 1 Auburn leading 50-40 against Michigan State n ° 2 with a trip in the Final Four on the line. The advance was largely due to Broome, which had scored 22 points to accompany 12 rebounds. Without their best player – one of the two best players in male university basketball this season – Tigers’ advance suddenly felt tenuous. But because of Broome and their depth, the Tigers prevailed 70-64, winning the South region to pass in the Final Four in San Antonio.
The 6 -foot attacker 10 inches and 240 pounds of Auburn is his center of gravity, the rest of the team revolving around him at the two ends of the ground. It moves exclusively at its pace – never accelerated, never out of control – often folding the arch of the game in its direction.
Bruce Pearl and The Auburn Tigers will make the second trip to the final program Four after beating Michigan State on Sunday. (Brett Davis / Imagn images)
This is why, even if the Tigers continued to keep Michigan State from a distance, the absence of a broomer was palpable, his eyes recovering towards the bench at each break in play. Perhaps this team would have enough to survive this match, to eliminate an Elite Eight victory against the coach Tom Izzo and a resilient group of Spartans. But how would Auburn win a national broomer-free championship?
This is why, when he emerged from the tunnel with less than six minutes to play, his right elbow wrapped under a round, the crowd Auburn praised rugged with relief, then went bankrupt in a frenzy when he continued directly at the scorer table to get.
“He comes to me and says,” If you need me, I can go, “said Steven Pearl, Auburn assistant and the son of coach Bruce Pearl. “Then Dylan (Cardwell) raises his hand for a submarine, and Johni just walks his ass at the marker’s table.”
Less than a minute later, Broome torn off a defensive rebound with his left arm and came out on a ball screen in attack, gently draining a pointer at 3. Auburn’s advance returned to 12 years. And fans of Auburn exploded.
Johni Broome. Absolute cinema 🙌
He returns from the locker room to a huge ovation and immediately overthrows the triple 👏#Marchmadness @Auburnmbb pic.twitter.com/pcnspfczuv
– NCAA March Madness (@Marchmadnessmbb) March 30, 2025
“I went to the locker room. I checked my arm,” said Broome. “The doctor said nothing was bad:” You are good. Nothing serious. “So, at that time, I just wanted to help my teammates.”
He had x -rays taken on the elbow with his mother, Julie, and dad waiting with him, fighting tears back. But when the results came back negative – no fractures – the doctors told Broome that it was his decision to return to the game. He did not hesitate.
“I was terrified for a second, but I saw the screen, everything came back negative, and I started smiling started,” said John Broome. “I told him that if he could finish, then finish. Otherwise, save it for another day. He was able to go out and finish. “
It was a quintessentiel moment of Willis Reed, and – despite an unprecedented late thrust of the state of Michigan – it was enough to seal the fate of the semi -final of Auburn.
“There are four teams in the remaining country, and Auburn is one of them,” said Bruce Pearl with a freshly cut net draped around his neck. “We couldn’t be happier.”
In what was a chalk NCAA tournament, the best Global Sear of the Support has qualified for the second Final Four in the history of the program, repeating the 2019 race under Pearl. It marks the second time that the tournament extended to 64 teams in 1985 that the four heads of series N ° 1 reached the Final Four, corresponding to 2008. Auburn will face the Rival de la SEC in Florida, which has progressed from the West region.
The Tigers had to overthrow a pillar of March Madness to arrive here, looking at a state team from Michigan who reached the elite eight through a pure force of will, led by a legendary coach in Izzo, who was looking for his ninth appearance in the last four. Pearl did his best to play the oppressed card on Saturday, placing Izzo and the Spartans on a well -deserved pedestal. It was an absurd stratagem for an Auburn team that was elite all season, but it was not a pure bluff either.
The tigers were more talented than the state of Michigan, but there was a mental barrier to erase for a group of Auburn which seemed to lose altitude in the section, losing three of its last four before the NCAA tournament. It is a team that advanced the way to the hard time, forced to set up the returns in the second half to the second and third laps, including a deficit of nine points against Michigan in the Sweet 16. And then he had to kill Izzo – M. March – and an opponent forged by Blunt Force, a villain Slasher -Film that cannot be destroyed.
“The Michigan State is a historic, incredible and formidable team. Tom Izzo is a renowned temple coach,” said Broome. “(Coach Pearl) did not lie. It’s an excellent team that we have just played.”
Auburn succeeded with Broome in the main role, ending with a summit of 25 points and 14 rebounds, converting 10 of his 13 shots, including the two attempts of 3 points. Less than 48 hours after a slow start against Michigan on the same floor, Broome and the Tigers were everywhere in the Spartans in a hurry, shaping a 23-8 advance of a sequence of 17-0. Broome had 17 points and 11 boards at the break, his second consecutive match with a double-time double-time. The first year student Tahaad Pettiford led a contributory cast with 10 points. He was the only other two -digit Tigers player, but the team collectively pulled 43% on the field, put the ball only six times and limited Michigan State to only 16 free throws.
“Our guys really haven’t blinned,” said Steven Pearl about the answer when Broome fell. “Our greatest strength is our depth. We were built to do a deep race in March. ”
This construction took place during several seasons, breaking a list of versatile but complementary parts. Bruce Pearl has a history of diamond discovery in Rash – which Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes, a former Pearl assistant, once described as “Burger King All -Americans”. This is how Pearl developed Broome, a three -year transfer of Morehead State. And Chad Baker-Mazara, a two-year transfer that started in Duquesne. And Denver Jones, another two -year transfer from the CRF. And Cardwell, a fifth year senior leader and defensive faithful. Pettiford, a real All-American prospect and very touted with McDonald’s, is the exception, but Pearl has always bought it, to get out of the bench and fall online behind Cardwell and Broome.
It was not always a fluid sky – there was an infamous incident at the start of the season and the message based on Cardwell breakfast last week – but after 32 victories, a regular dry season title and now a trip in the end, the proof is obvious.
“We stayed together through a lot of adversity,” said Steven Pearl, standing on a thin layer of confetti, taking up a piece of net in his Final Oven hat. “We have gone through a lot of S – together this year, and our guys remained connected.”
It was enough to resist the finish of Michigan State more in the battle of rebound and to make a burst of late baskets to shoot in the six. The best scorers Jaxon Kohler (17) and Jaden Akins (15) did most of their damage in the second half, but the Spartans only fired 34% and only led once, 8-6 in the first minutes of the match. Pearl and Izzo had faced only one as a chief trainer, also in the elite eight in 2010, when Pearl was in Tennessee. Izzo won this first battle. Pearl balanced on Sunday.
“If I will arrive in the Final Four, if Auburn will arrive in the Final Four,” said Pearl, “could as well do it against an excellent program like Michigan State and an excellent coach like Tom Izzo.”
Auburn is not Cinderella, but it is not an inheritance. It is a football school that Pearl built in a legitimate basketball competitor during his 11 seasons. And after three consecutive outings of the first weekend, he has Tigers in the Final Four, a wire power power in a season defined by them.
Now, with the first national championship of the program at hand – a precipice apparently impossible before the arrival of Pearl – the Tigers will first have to pass through Florida, which beat Auburn on its home in February at the only meeting of the two teams season. Broome status will undoubtedly remain a subject in the coming days, and Pearl has recognized that Auburn will not know the full extent of the injury before Monday.
“Whether it’s a slight hyperextension or anything,” said Pearl. “The doctors said there was no damage. I bet you are quite sore tomorrow.”
But Sunday evening, with a bag of ice rolled around his elbow and another draped net around his neck, Broome did not worry about it.
“All glory to God again for allowing me to be healthy,” he said. “To stand above the ladder in front of all the fans of Auburn … looking down and seeing my teammates, the whole Auburn family. It simply means the world for me.”
(Photo: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
