Longtime Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl once again spoke out about the early exit of Chad Baker-Mazara following the Tigers’ first-round loss in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
The junior guard was thrown for two flagrant fouls with less than four minutes left on the starting QB’s March 22 game against Yale.
“That’s a pretty tough call. He got hit about five seconds ago, got tangled up, got a little elbow hit, but they missed, probably no one saw. And about five seconds later Chad hit him. I hit him,” Pearl said. After the match. “It was inappropriate. It’s clearly a bad grade 1. The fact that it was upgraded to bad grade 2 was a decision that the authorities had to make, but it obviously had a huge impact on the outcome.”
But on Thursday, Pearl turned his attention to Auburn faithful who he believes are being too critical of Baker-Mazara.
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Auburn Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl during a game against the Texas A&M Aggies at Neville Arena on January 9, 2024 in Auburn, Alabama. (Michael Chan/Getty Images)
“I want to say to the Auburn family, I know you’re disappointed, but if someone is messing with your son, you’re going to stand up for him a little bit. ?” Pearl said via the Associated Press. “Please stop messing with my son. Please stop. My son has apologized. He made a mistake. And I’m calling you out. I’m not feeling it. For those who want to continue on social media, Please unfollow that person. Don’t do it.”
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Baker-Mazara was certainly a key part of Auburn’s rotation, but the team’s inability to hold on to the basketball throughout the game contributed to the loss.
“Chad was one of our best players, one of our best playmakers, a big part of our game plan, so losing him in that situation was a big part of our game plan. It was really, really disruptive for our teams on both ends,” Pearl added.
Bruce Pearl of the Auburn Tigers walks before a game against the LSU Tigers at Neville Arena on January 13, 2024 in Auburn, Alabama. (Michael Chan/Getty Images)
Aside from the 14 turnovers Auburn committed, Yale took advantage of a significant number of trips to the free throw line.
However, associate head coach Stephen Pearl argued that the result would have been different if Baker Mazara had been on the court for the entire game.
“If Chad plays that game, we can beat Yale by 20 points,” Pearl said on “The Next Round” on March 19. “I don’t want to dance around that. I certainly don’t mean to disrespect Yale, but we are much better than them and we could have beaten them without him.”
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Baker Mazara entered the first round against Yale averaging 10.3 points. However, no points were scored before he was sent off.
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