Someone on the Auburn Rant posted this (ostensibly a paywall article):
The complete dominance of Auburn and Broome
"They're great offensively," one coach who faced Auburn said. "It's really simple stuff. You can't let Broome get in the short roll, you need to have a plan for the flex action because everything ends up in some kind of flex action. And then they just say, we're going to get it up on the rim and we're going to send bodies in there and you just get a little bit physically overwhelmed, no matter how much you prepare for it. They've got big dudes going in there, bodies are flying, and it turns into a physical game. They can win in a lot of different ways."
"They're really, really hard to play," another coach added. "The amount of things they have in their toolbox, from the way they deny to the fullest extent to the way they don't allow you to get in an easy rhythm up the floor. They just stretch your special teams in a way very few teams can. In your prep for them, you almost get distracted by the totality of what they are. You have to spend so much time on minutiae that for other teams, you don't have to. They're so good at top-locking and denying. They use their physicality to disrupt any kind of flow that you've got going."
At the heart of it all is Broome -- about whom at the moment coach Bruce Pearl is holding his breath. Broome left Tuesday night's game against Georgia State in the first half with a right shoulder injury and didn't return. He sat on the bench in the second half with his arm in a sling. Pearl said after the game they'll know more as the week progresses but they hope he'll be OK.
The Tigers don't want to think about losing the 6-foot-10 senior forward, who has been the nation's best player through the first six weeks of the season. Entering Tuesday night, Broome was averaging a career-high 19.7 points and 12.7 rebounds, the latter ranking No. 1 in the country. He was also adding 3.8 assists and 2.8 blocks, shooting nearly 56% from the field and making a 3-pointer per game.
"Broome is the Player of the Year," one coach said. "I think he's in unbelievable shape right now. His conditioning level compared to years past is a different level. He's able to sustain this super-high level of intensity and efficiency. Sometimes he would settle for low-percentage shots out of fatigue; this year, he's not bailing the defense out. He's giving more effort on the defensive end. He's not a stopper, but his hands are so good in the post. He's like a boxer with a great jab, you never really get into him."
"He's making 3s," another opposing coach added. "Our biggest thing was trying to keep him off the glass and not letting him get the ball in the short roll. If you let him catch it in the pocket, he can pass it, he can score, he can draw fouls. He makes the right play. It's hard to take away. You kind of gotta go away from your normal defensive principles to game-plan for him. He can dominate a game without the basketball and you can't plan for that."
Coaches were quick to point out that it's not just Broome. Pearl's team has the nation's No. 1 offense, the Tigers can take care of the ball better than nearly every team in the country, they're an elite rebounding unit and they shoot better than 38% from 3-point range. Dylan Cardwell and Chaney Johnson have been great complements to Broome up front, Denver Jones has developed into a table setter, while veteran Chad Baker-Mazara is the ultimate X factor.
And then there has been the emergence of freshman point guard Tahaad Pettiford, a top-50 recruit from the 2024 class. He has yet to start a game this season, but he's averaging 11.1 points off the bench and has been one of the best big-game freshmen in the country: 21 points against Houston in the second game of his career, 14 points against Iowa State, 20 points at Duke. "Everything goes according to script and Pettiford totally changes the complexion of the game," one coach said. "I've been surprised at the consistency. He has not looked freshman-ish in the biggest of moments.
"I knew how talented he was offensively, but the thing that surprised me was how well he played against Duke, Iowa State and Houston," said another. "You don't know how they're going to be in those moments. To go down to Houston and do what he did, did it at Cameron Indoor Stadium, did it to Iowa State. He has always been a fearless scorer, but to do it on some of the bigger stages?"
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