Chad Baker-Mazara was ejected for a flagrant 2-foul three minutes into Auburn’s first-round NCAA tournament game with Yale. Afterward, he tweeted and deleted a post that seemed to slam the officials who ejected him.
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Chad Baker-Mazara is a massive part of Auburn’s success and one of the reasons the team recently snuck out an SEC Tournament win that had Bruce Pearl in tears. But, if Auburn is going to win its first-round matchup with Yale, it’ll have to do it without its third-leading scorer.
Replays during the game showed Baker-Mazara looking over at his opponent and sending an elbow into the chest of a neaby player. After some discussion, he was ejected. Minutes later, Baker-Mazara tweeted and deleted words ripping the officiating crew.
Chad Baker-Mazara was given a Flagrant 2 and ejected for this elbow pic.twitter.com/E2rtbINeJa
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) March 22, 2024
Per Ainslie Lee of Auburn Tigers of AL.com, Head coach Bruce Pearl made a mid-game statement clarifying why Baker-Mazara responded the way he did. Pearl revealed that his player was defending himself.
Here’s what Pearl said:
“Obviously, we just saw the replay and what he did was wrong. I thought it should’ve been a flagrant 1, not a 2, especially in a game after an entire season of work is something that’s obviously going to disrupt us. He is one of our very best players. It was a retaliation. He had just got hit in the throat the play before, and he shouldn’t have retaliated.”
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