Mailbag 209: Does Johni Broome deserve a statue at Auburn?
This week: International players, stat predictions, non-con schedules, football records, special teams and a loaded ice cream truck
AUBURN — It’s about to be Memorial Day Weekend, and basketball is in the front of a lot of Auburn fans’ minds.
How often have you been able to say that?
Maybe it’s because the Tahaad Pettiford NBA Draft decision will be resolved in the next several days. Maybe it’s because what Bruce Pearl said earlier this week about his new-look roster — including an impending international signee — is just that fresh. Maybe it’s the vibes that come with a Final Four run and an outright SEC title.
And maybe it’s got a little something to do with Auburn football being on a streak of four straight losing seasons.
The point is, we’re toward the end of May, and we got more basketball questions than football questions for the mailbag this week. That says a lot about Pearl’s program, even when there’s so much still up in the air about a roster that will either hit the total reset button or bring back just one key player from a historic season.
You asked about international players, early stat predictions for next season, scheduling, the new vacancy on the coaching staff and a whole lot more. On the football side, we’ll discuss final record projections, special teams and some more talk about the inside linebacker position.
Also, to honor the start of the summer, my question to you this week was taken from this prompt I saw on social media:
But we’ll to start with a big question about a big player — like, “build a statue” big.
Let’s go.
Doesn't Johni deserve a statue next to Charles? He is without a doubt the best basketball player ever to suit up for Auburn.
Not only did he achieve SECPOY, first team All-America and one NPOY award, but he also led us to an SEC Championship in the toughest conference ever, powered us to our second Final Four in history, gave us three exceptional years, played through myriad pains and injuries, and is an Auburn Man through and through. His Willis Reed moment will be one I will take to my grave.
This is in no way a knock on Barkley, Auburn's greatest NBA player and the face of Auburn nationwide, but Chuck's college career pales in comparison (Okay, I'm still a little pissed-off about that loss to Richmond in the NCAAs in '84.)
I'm choosing the Big Vanilla ice cream sandwich, with a caveat. It's rare to find ice cream sandwiches with crispy chocolate wafers as God intended. I check for freshness, try different brands, but almost always am rewarded with soggy wafers, which turns the quintessential ice cream treat into mush. There should be a Congressional investigation to call the ice cream sandwich makers to task.
Scott
When it comes to pure basketball achievement at Auburn, there’s no question that Johni Broome had a better career than Charles Barkley.
Look at Barkley’s top honors at Auburn: SEC Player of the Year, three-time All-SEC selection, SEC Tournament MVP. Broome matches all of those, and he exceeds them elsewhere: He’s the only Tiger to ever be named a unanimous first-team All-American and a National Player of the Year award winner.
Barkley averaged 14.1 points, 9.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.7 blocks and 0.9 steals per game in three seasons at Auburn. Broome averaged 16.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 2.2 blocks and 0.9 steals per game in three seasons at Auburn. Barkley only has him in the rebounding department — and only by a little bit.
And, yes, Broome led Auburn to an outright SEC regular-season championship, a conference tournament title and a Final Four. Barkley didn’t get a conference title at Auburn, and his lone NCAA Tournament appearance was a one-and-done. In fact, Barkley went on national television and said Broome was “better than (him) in college” before the start of Auburn’s NCAA Tournament run this year.
If building statues were based on athletic achievement alone, then Broome absolutely deserves to have one of those outside of Neville Arena. But statues also cost a good amount of money, time and space. It’s also worth noting that Barkley got his statue 33 years after his playing career ended.
Barkley’s statue was unveiled before the 2017 Iron Bowl. Let’s go back to that time, because I think the context there is important.