“We did not look like the number one team in the country.” Auburn, in the last week of the regular season, looked like a classical symphony marred with a couple of wrong notes. Bruce Pearl’s orchestra went flat against Alabama at home to cap off their SEC exploits. On March 8, 2025, the No. 1 Tigers fell 93-91 in overtime to No. 7 Alabama at Neville Arena, despite Johni Broome’s career-high 34 points—a loss that exposed defensive frailties and rebounding woes against a rival that outmuscled them 41-33 on the boards. Even though they won the regular season championship, clinching their third SEC title under Pearl with a 15-3 conference record, analysts are ringing warning bells for the Tigers. But where does Auburn mess up exactly?
According to Mark Titus, they aren’t cohesive enough as a unit. On The Mark Titus Show, the college basketball insider discussed Auburn’s recent failures and what led to them. Don’t get him wrong, he’s a fan! But Bruce Pearl’s team messed up one too many times for him to not talk about it.
As for where they mess up? “They just make dumb mistakes.” Titus talked about how the group lacked unity, and how that’s costing them valuable games. “They’re not all on the same page at all times. There is a little bit of ‘my turn’ basketball.” He said, not sure whether it was a recent trend or something that he just didn’t notice with the Tigers this season.
And it makes sense. The four losses that Auburn racked up aside, to Duke (December 4, 84-78), Kentucky, Alabama, and an earlier upset at unranked Missouri (January 25, 79-74), a lot of their victories weren’t exactly convincing either. Mark Titus gave the examples of South Carolina and Georgia, which were games Auburn won by a feather. For a team that topped the nation for months on end, holding the AP No. 1 spot for much of the 2024-25 season, that just doesn’t add up.
Titus went on to talk about how the Tigers haven’t been as commanding as the records may suggest. “As dominant as it’s felt like Auburn has been all year, there have been a lot of close calls that they pull out of in the end.” However, even their games against Texas and Arkansas went down to the wire, with Bruce Pearl’s team escaping with a single-digit margin.
However, Auburn doesn’t need to worry just yet. Their real challenge will be the NCAA Tournament, in which they’ll have to prove their mettle as a team. As of March 14, 2025, Auburn sits at 27-4, projected as a No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region after their SEC Tournament quarterfinal looms today against either Ole Miss, Arkansas, or South Carolina. Without a doubt, there’ll be a huge target on the Tigers back, with teams looking to cause an upset. Johni Broome also has a lot to prove, as he gets an NPOY snub from Dicky-V. Bruce Pearl, named AP SEC Coach of the Year on March 11, faces whispers of locker room unrest—sources close to the team suggest Broome’s dominance (18.0 points, 10.7 rebounds) has bred resentment among guards like Denver Jones and Tahaad Pettiford, who crave more shots.
Bruce Pearl’s star forward overlooked during Vitale’s 24-25 awards
Dick Vitale knows his college basketball. The legendary ESPN broadcaster made his return to the booth after a long fight with cancer, and it seems like he’s back to his usual routine! Recently, he put out his All-Rolls Royce and Diaper Dandy squads, while also giving his thoughts on the NPOY and Coach of the Year conversations.
While Cooper Flagg and Johni Broome have been deadlocked in an extremely tight contest for months now, with Broome earning AP SEC Player of the Year on March 11 with 15 of 16 votes, Vitale has no qualms picking out his favorite of the two. He went with Cooper Flagg, no questions asked. “This Diaper Dandy-turned-dominator is the real deal!” Dicky-V said in his article, praising the six-foot-nine phenom from Maine.
ESPN analyst Dick Vitale in 2022.
Johni Broome didn’t leave empty-handed though. Vitale called the NPOY candidate “a rim-rocking, glass-cleaning machine for Auburn,” putting him on his All-Rolls Royce first team. An honor, for sure, but not the one that he has been working towards.
March Madness is the perfect opportunity for Johni Broome to prove that he’s the best player in college basketball. If he grabs every opportunity in front of him, there’s no doubt that he can lead Auburn to the Final Four. It will be interesting to see how his team fares in the NCAA Tournament, and whether they live up to the hype.
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