Observations: Yale 78, Auburn 76
Down a key man, the Tigers couldn't put away the Bulldogs early and couldn't finish them off late in an upset ending to a special season.
(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
SPOKANE, Wash. — It was a situation Auburn hadn’t faced many times, if at all.
An Auburn team that had secured 26 of its 27 wins by double-digits found itself in a one-possession game in the final three minutes.
The Tigers were thousands of miles from home, having not played well against a clear-cut underdog in an NCAA Tournament environment that always roots for upsets.
Their free-flowing offense had cooled, and their elite defense had been breached. Auburn’s assist-to-turnover ratio, one of the nation’s best all season long, was on the wrong side of the equation.
Meanwhile, a prototypical March Madness hero had emerged for Yale, hitting big shot after big shot. A 10-point Auburn lead with 7:27 left evaporated.
And — in a huge piece of unfamiliar terrain — Auburn was literally without one of its best players. That had been the case since the 16:59 mark of the first half, when Chad Baker-Mazara was ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul away from a play.
Auburn had opportunities to shake off its struggles and take the lead on Yale. But one of Bruce Pearl’s very best teams at both taking care of the ball and knocking down free throws did neither.
“Just shock,” center Dylan Cardwell said. “Just shock, not really being able to understand how much we under-accomplished.”
In a chaotic final minute, the Tigers came up empty over and over again. They missed several shots and several free throws that could have tied the game. They didn’t get the whistles, either.
“I don't what to speak for other people, but it is frustrating,” said power forward Jaylin Williams, whose record-breaking Auburn career came to an end Friday. “Those refs aren't perfect at the end of the day. We have to play through it. We can't give them a chance to even make those calls to begin with.”
So Auburn’s 2023-24 campaign — one with plenty of impressive wins and a coveted SEC Tournament championship — came to an end in cruel fashion, with All-American center Johni Broome holding onto his knee under the goal after hitting the floor hard.
Final score: Yale 78, Auburn 76. It was the wrong kind of history for the Tigers.
The loss was Auburn’s first in the Round of 64 in program history. It was the fourth of Pearl’s coaching career, and the other three weren’t quite the same: Two losses as a 9 seed at Tennessee, plus one as a 12 seed at Milwaukee.
“You know, it's tough to reflect on the season when you just go through one of the most disappointing losses in your career,” Pearl said. “I've been in the 12 spot. We've had these great wins. This is the biggest upset in NCAA tournament that I think I've experienced.”
It was a bitter finish for a team that had played so joyously and so freely for the majority of a 27-8 season. It was one of its worst performances of the season, too, and it underscored the do-or-die nature of a massive, single-elimination tournament.
“Anything happens in March,” Williams said. “I texted my mom. I told her I was sorry. She was like, 'It's OK, Jaylin. You're always a winner.' That really hit me. I'm more than just a basketball player. That just hit me.”
Here are five big Observations from Auburn’s 78-76 first-round loss to Yale in the NCAA Tournament. (The Rotation Charts will make an appearance early in this one.)
The Chad Baker-Mazara ejection made a huge difference
Auburn couldn’t have scripted a much better start to this game. Broome got to the line for a pair of free throws on the first possession. Denver Jones knocked down a 3-pointer off a Yale turnover.
On the next few possessions, Broome got a putback to fall, hit a 3-pointer and got another putback. Auburn was up by seven a little more than three minutes into the game, clicking on both offense and defense.
Then the officials stopped the game and went to the replay monitor. Baker-Mazara elbowed Yale sharpshooter August Mahoney in the head on the way back up the floor. It turned out to be retaliation of contact from Mahoney moments earlier:
Both in the minutes following the ejection and after the game, Pearl said what Baker-Mazara did was clearly wrong — but he wasn’t sure if it warranted an ejection.
“Obviously, the decision to Flagrant 2 Chad, that's a pretty tough call,” Pearl said. “He had got hit about five seconds earlier, got tangled up, got a little bit of an elbow. They let it go, maybe nobody saw it, and about five seconds later, Chad hit him. It was inappropriate. Clearly a Flagrant 1.
“The fact that it was elevated to a Flagrant 2 was a decision that the official had to make, but it obviously had tremendous impact on outcome.”
One thing was clear: Baker-Mazara’s ejection made a huge impact on Auburn and the game itself. Yale went on a 12-4 run immediately after the call and took the lead.
“It slowed the game down,” Cardwell said.
Baker-Mazara was third on Auburn’s team in minutes played and points scored per game this season. He looked like he would be a sizable mismatch for a Yale team that gave up 30-plus points to Kansas wing Kevin McCullar earlier this season. He was one of Auburn’s biggest offensive weapons and a crucial part of the Tigers’ depth.