SAN ANTONIO — Soon after the buzzer sounded in the national semifinal, Auburn star big man Johni Broome slumped over a few feet from the baseline, his hands etched into his thighs and head slung toward the floor.
As his teammates waded toward the postgame handshake line, Broome stood frozen with the grief from Auburn’s 79-73 loss to Florida on Saturday at the Alamodome. After a second half full of missed opportunities that left Broome scoreless for the game’s final 15 minutes, Auburn’s historic season, Broome’s resplendent career and the dream of winning the school’s first men’s basketball title ended.
“It’s been a special year, probably best year of my life,” Broome said, speaking barely above a whisper in the Auburn locker room. “I wanted to win the national championship. It hurts. This team was special.”
In the postgame locker room, Broome wore a black hoodie pulled over his forehead and his cracked, red eyes looked down at the locker room floor. He was barely audible as he tried to put the game and season into context. Broome went scoreless for the game’s final 15 minutes and 12 seconds after dominating much of the first half. He closed the game’s final 15 minutes with three missed free throws, two misses from the field and three turnovers, which included an offensive foul.
“I feel like we got the looks that we wanted to get,” he said. “I wasn’t able to capitalize and finish them.”
By the end of the game, he looked overcome with exhaustion and emotion. And in the Florida locker room, the coaches and players took credit for the physical toll they inflicted on Broome.
Florida is the rare team that rotates in four capable big men, and the coaching staff pointed out that the wave of fresh bodies helped tire Broome. The combination of 6-foot-11 Alex Condon, 6-10 Rueben Chinyelu, 6-9 Thomas Haugh and 7-1 Micah Handlogten slowly eroded Broome’s effectiveness.
“Everybody got a piece of him, and we could see by that 10-minute mark in the second half he was really starting to get fatigued,” Florida associate head coach Carlin Hartman said.
It was a stark difference from the first half. Broome had 12 points at halftime and Florida did a poor job moving him from his desired spots. The Auburn staff was optimistic at halftime about how sharp he looked.
“That was about as much pop and pace that he’s played with in a long time,” Auburn assistant coach Steven Pearl said. “And he showed why he’s the best, if not one of the best players in all college basketball.”
Pearl then pointed out that a different level of energy is required to handle the waves of Florida big men. Florida assistant John Andrzejek credited Hartman for a fiery halftime speech that included challenging Chinyelu, whom Broome took advantage of in the first half.
Andrzejek scouted Florida, and part of that included a deep analysis of the risk-reward of not doubling Broome. Because the Gators didn’t, Broome spent parts of the first half methodically pounding the ball into the paint. None of his shots were from more than eight feet.
The Gators needed to make sure he couldn’t establish himself. And Andrzejek stressed that the Gators force Broome to shoot over his left shoulder.
Hartman’s halftime motivational speech to the Gators’ big men lasted about three minutes, was pockmarked with some colorful language and ended with a simple theme — it’s OK to lose, but it’s not OK to get pushed around. It was much more emotional than technical. Chinyelu recalled: “He said, ‘We’re playing soft right now. We’re not playing like ourselves.'”
Broome took a hard fall against Michigan State on Sunday and didn’t practice this week until Thursday because of an injured elbow. Broome’s right elbow was padded and then wrapped in a sleeve that stretched from his right bicep to his wrist.
“Our medical staff did an unbelievable job this week of just making sure that he was as comfortable as he possibly could,” Pearl said. “Every time Florida had a chance, they were hitting that [elbow], and that’s part of the game. And Johni, to his credit, played through that physicality, played through that contact and was still able to have a really effective game.”
And when Broome’s space collapsed and his energy zapped, Auburn’s chances went with him. The Tigers had 12 second-half turnovers — the Florida coaching staff counted 20 second-half deflections — and Auburn had just eight second-half paint points after 26 in the first half.
The second-half performance left a pall over the Auburn locker room as Broome whispered answers to the final questions he received after the loss.
“Obviously, I left my impact on what I’ve done here,” he said. “I [thank] God for allowing me to come here and be able to make an impact.”
On Saturday night, he couldn’t give them enough.
