LEXINGTON, KY.—Even in a league as powerful as the SEC was this season, there wasn’t a big man who could consistently contain Auburn’s Johni Broome, let alone stop him.
That’s what makes Sunday’s second-round NCAA Tournament South Regional game between the No. 1-seeded Tigers and No. 9-seed Creighton so compelling.
In one corner is Broome, a 6-10, 240-pound mountain of a human being. In the other corner is the Bluejays’ even more massive Ryan Kalkbrenner, a 7-1, 270-pound fifth-year senior who this season joined former Georgetown star Patrick Ewing as the only players in Big East Conference history to earn league defensive player of the year honors four times.
Auburn runs its offense through Broome, a skilled and willing passer. That makes him a two-way threat. If opposing teams try to double-cover him, he finds a teammate who will inevitably be wide open. Auburn has several knock-down three-point shooters on its roster.
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If opponents have tried to play Broome straight up, well, that usually didn’t work out either. He’s elite at doing his work early in a possession and carving out space in the post. When Broome catches an entry pass, it’s usually an easy-money basket for him. And there’s one more thing — Auburn coach Bruce Pearl has given Broome the green light to fire away from three-point range, and he’s made just enough of them (22 of 79, 27.8 percent) to make defenses respect him.
Kalkbrenner looks forward to the challenge.
“We’ve watched a ton of him in the past 24 hours,” Kalkbrenner told Hoops HQ. “He’s got really great touch around the rim, but one of the things that makes him harder to guard is he’s such a good passer. You can play good scorers and just send two people and get the ball out of his hands, but you send two people at Broome, he’ll whip that thing to whoever’s open and he’ll get an open shot. That’s what makes him hardest to guard.
“You play someone like that, you’re obviously not going to be able to take away everything. He’s going to make a play. I think the mindset is make things as hard as possible. If he scores, if he makes a good move on you, whatever don’t get too caught up in it. Continue to make his life rough and hopefully that wears on him throughout the game.”
Pearl, whose team was ranked No. 1 for much of the last third of the season and earned the No. 1 overall seed in this tournament, isn’t about to deviate much from what got the Tigers this far. And that includes making liberal use of Broome.
“Johni can guard one through five, and so his being matched up against a skilled big guy is nothing new,” Pearl says. “The difference is you don’t go up against a 7-1 very often. They’re going to play him one on one in the post and we’re going to continue to still get him close touches and do the things that we do.
“I don’t think they’ll be doubling down much; they’re going to try to make him score one on one and they’re not going to foul him. But we’re still going to play through the post and still play inside out.”
