Johni Broome has a lot riding on March Madness.
The Auburn Tigers earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament after a dominant 28-win campaign in the historically treacherous SEC. Their guiding light all season was Johni Broome, the fifth-year senior with an impressively dynamic skill set in the frontcourt.
Broome has been on the shortlist of best college basketball players all season. He finished the campaign with the second-highest Box Plus-Minus (13.8), which trails only Duke sensation Cooper Flagg (15.0). Not so shockingly, Broome and Flagg are widely considered the only candidates for the Wooden Award, with Broome’s odds (+175) well behind Flagg’s (-220) at this point.
The Duke freshman deserves all the praise. He’s the consensus No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft and he has been the storyline in college basketball this season. It’s hard enough to arrive in Durham at 17 years old and produce, much less outpace the competition en route to a historic debut campaign.
That said, Broome’s dominance has gotten lost in the sauce a bit. He has been as good, if not better than Flagg for Auburn this season. It’s slightly less impressive as a 23-year-old, sure, but for the purposes of college hoops awards (and the transcription of history), Broome deserves his flowers.
If there’s one way to cement your reputation and perhaps earn a few extra props, it is dominating deep into March Madness. Broome will look to add to his legacy in the NCAA Tournament. More than college accolades, however, Broome’s future is on the line this month.
Broome currently projects as the 28th pick to the Boston Celtics in FanSided’s updated mock draft. I am personally quite high on Broome’s NBA future. He’s the No. 17 prospect on our latest big board. The draft community has different opinions, though. The majority of mock drafts and prospect rankings peg Broome as a second-round pick. He’s 31st at Bleacher Report. He’s 41st at ESPN. And so on.
There has long been skepticism around Broome’s NBA projection. He’s a dominant force at the college level, there’s no denying it, but not every college star translates to the NBA. It’s a different game in the pros, and smaller bigs who thrive in the post tend to divide scouts.
Folks will continue to doubt Broome’s ability to defend at the NBA level, despite leading the SEC in blocks (2.3) and dominating on the glass (10.6 rebounds per game, also an SEC high). He’s mobile enough, but Broome is best described as an average athlete by NBA standards. Opposing offenses will target him in space and test his mettle on the perimeter. More physical bigs will post him up and test his strength.
These are challenges Broome should be able to handle, but there’s only so much time left for him to convince NBA scouts. For all his regular-season success between Morehead State and Auburn, Broome’s CV still lacks a deep run in March. Auburn is well-positioned for a dominant NCAA Tournament run, but we said the same thing last season … and they lost to Yale in the first round. Broome scored 24 points on 10 field goal attempts in that game, forcing 11 free throws while posting 13 rebounds, four assists, and two blocks. None of that gets remembered, though. Only the final score.
We saw something similar with Zach Edey last season. He’d been dominating the regular season for a while, but scouts remained skeptical, in part due to Purdue’s tendency to flame out in March. Well, the Boilermakers made it all the way to the national championship game, with Edey putting together one of the most dominant postseason displays in recent memory. He ended up as the No. 9 overall pick.
This is a stronger draft class, and Edey was a better prospect, but Broome could look to follow a similar blueprint. If Auburn goes the distance and Broome stacks double-doubles for the next few weeks, NBA teams will have a much harder time poking holes in his resume. There are plenty of appealing traits here: Broome has feather-soft touch, a real eye for passing, and he’s locked in on defense. The southpaw can step behind the 3-point line and launch it, too. More NBA teams will see logic and come around on Broome if he showcases his impressive repertoire on the March Madness stage.
If he one-ups Cooper Flagg and earns bragging rights among the college basketball elite, that’s just the cherry on top.