Johni Broome made a declaration to ESPN in February.
“I think I am the best player in college basketball, but that’s something that doesn’t have to be said,” Broome said.
After surviving a gauntlet of record-breaking SEC regular-season battles and battling through injuries — including an elbow injury that sidelined him for five minutes of game time in the Elite Eight — the Auburn Tigers star has a chance to prove his claim.
Broome heads into the Final Four as Cooper Flagg’s primary competition in the national player of the year race with a possible rematch against him and the Duke Blue Devils in Monday’s national championship game. But first, Broome will have to lead his team past Florida on Saturday.
Despite the challenges Auburn has weathered over the course of an otherwise dominant season — including losses to Duke in December and Florida in February, the latter of which snapped a 14-game winning streak — Broome’s confidence in the Tigers’ ability to win their first national title or in his status atop the heap of college basketball talent has not wavered.
“It’s one of those things where you let your work speak for itself and let everybody else talk about it,” he told ESPN.
Broome is not a five-star prospect who began his collegiate career as a projected first-round NBA pick. He started at Morehead State, where he had to work on his quickness and develop into a player marketable to high-level Division I programs. When he transferred to Auburn ahead of the 2022-23 season, he was stepping onto a roster that had been anchored by Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler — former big men who went No. 3 and No. 22 in the 2022 NBA draft — but lacked the lofty credentials they had brought with them to the Tigers.Broome had to earn praise with continuous growth. And he did, improving from 14.2 points and 8.4 rebounds per game in his first season to a double-double of 18.7 points and 10.9 rebounds this season.
As the sport continues to grapple with backlash over the high number of players who transfer and the turbulence the portal can sometimes cause, there is a silver lining: This new era has given players such as Broome the opportunity to change their careers and futures. And if Broome’s story ends with a national title, he will leave Auburn not only as a legend among Tigers fans but also as the poster child of the transfer portal era, validating the ambitions of players who have sought a second chance elsewhere.
“I would think that he’s got a chance to have been maybe the most impactful transfer in college basketball history,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said during the NCAA tournament’s South Regional in Atlanta. “A lot of that’s going to depend on how this finishes up.”
As Broome sat on the floor of State Farm Arena and clutched his elbow, Auburn’s followers on X had a meltdown.
In an attempt to block a shot, Broome landed awkwardly on his left leg and then right elbow. When he walked to the locker room during the final 10 minutes of the Elite Eight matchup against Michigan State, the Auburn-heavy crowd stopped cheering — the uncertainty had turned excitement over the Tigers’ 10-point lead into anxiousness over the status of the team’s star.
Minutes later, Broome sprinted back onto the court as the thousands of fans roared.
“Obviously, it’s a sigh of relief because we felt like we could still win the game without him, but obviously, we’d have our hands full in San Antonio [without him],” said assistant coach Steven Pearl, Bruce’s son.
Johni Broome drills 3 after return from injury
After exiting the game, Johni Broome returns and knocks down a 3 for Auburn.
As Broome made his way to the locker room before returning, Chaney Johnson said, Broome told his teammates to “finish the game for me” — a testament to the culture Broome has helped instill. Because not only is he the star of the team, but Broome is also the glue guy. He had to be, as the leader of a roster featuring three starters attending their second schools.
The change that comes with integrating transfers has been a challenge for a lot of programs, but Broome and his teammates are proof of what can happen when things jell.
“When I got here, [Pearl] brought me in because he thought I was a good person,” Broome said. “When he brought in more transfers like [Chad Baker-Mazara], [Denver Jones] and [Johnson], he said they were going to be good people. I think when you’re able to build a team how you want it, you can organize it by getting good guys in a good system.”
For three months, Auburn’s résumé was nearly spotless.
Between Dec. 4 and March 4, the Tigers lost just one game, spending most of the season as America’s No. 1 team before taking a 1-3 stumble heading into the NCAA tournament. Broome’s magnificence on the court has been a key component in the Tigers’ Final Four run; he has also matured into a relatable leader along the way.
His teammates say Broome keeps the vibes light and brings everyone together. One of his best friends on the team is 19-year-old freshman Tahaad Pettiford. And he has developed close relationships with others.
“Johni is a playful, goofy guy,” Miles Kelly said. “I mean, off the court, there is never a dull, serious moment. We just play around all the time, and we like to joke and have fun off the court.”
As a point of illustration, Kelly and Broome are roommates when the team travels — and the two banter about who is the cleanest.
“I try to keep him clean,” Kelly said. “I don’t like to have my space all dirty and stuff like that. He’ll just come in and throw stuff on the ground.”
“[Kelly] is the type to drink a water bottle and put it on my side,” Broome countered. “He walks in and puts it on the dresser right there, so technically, it is on my side of the room. … That’s my brother, so we always go back and forth about who is being dirty.”
Miles Kelly and Johni Broome room together when Auburn is on the road. Andy Lyons/Getty Images
That carefree approach helped Auburn weather the pressure of chasing a national title and competing for the SEC regular-season championship in the same year the conference set a record for the most NCAA tournament bids (14) in college basketball history. It’s a lighthearted atmosphere Pearl has encouraged — practices are full of trash talk and laughter.
Still, Broome can change the tone in a split second. His teammates know that once his alter ego arrives, it’s time to lock in.
“I’ll tell him, ‘You need to turn on that alter ego: JB4,'” Baker-Mazara said. “Outside the court, he’s Johni Broome. On the court, he’s JB4.”
JB4 is a double-double machine. His 25-point, 14-rebound effort in Sunday’s win over Michigan State was his 20th double-double of the season. Yes, Flagg — the projected top pick in this summer’s NBA draft — has a series of monster games and “SportsCenter” highlights that Broome can’t match. But the Auburn star also produced some of the year’s most dominant efforts by any player.
Broome finished with 20 points, 9 rebounds, 5 blocks and 2 steals in a November victory over Houston. He went on to post 21 points, 16 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 blocks in a Maui Invitational win over Memphis. Then he scored 19 points and connected on two of his four 3-point attempts in his team’s February win over rival Alabama.
“My teammates always say JB4 … that’s when I’m playing,” Broome said. “I say there isn’t a difference, but they say, when I get into one of those modes, I’m a different player. I mean, I’m a very fun guy, a good guy to be around, but I think once you step on the court, it’s a different level of seriousness that comes with it. This is my career. This is my craft, so I take it very seriously, and every time I step onto the court, I want to dominate.”
Auburn did not reach the NCAA tournament for the first time until 1984, Charles Barkley’s junior season and his last before making the leap to the NBA. Thirty-five years later, Pearl led the program to its first Final Four in 2019. But this year’s run, fueled by Broome’s rise, is significant because the rules about which programs can and can’t be great have been rewritten in the transfer portal and NIL era. As schools such as North Carolina and Kansas search for the formula to hold on to the blue-blood label, schools such as Auburn could crash the party with a national championship. That’s why Broome’s push to reach the pinnacle of the sport is significant.
That ambition could cause a headache for Florida, and perhaps the ultimate blue blood: Duke.
“I think we’re all aware [of] how lethal [Broome] is on the block and getting to where he wants to get to and drawing fouls,” Michigan coach Dusty May said before the Wolverines’ loss to the Tigers in the Sweet 16. “He’s added a 3-point shot, and then he’s a very good passer, and he kind of quarterbacks their offense, so he’s a challenge on a number of levels.”
Added Tom Izzo following Michigan State’s loss to Auburn in the Elite Eight: “We did most of the things we wanted to do except guard Broome a little bit better. It wasn’t the points he scored that got us. We’re used to giving up points and making sure they don’t get 3s. They’re a pretty good 3-point shooting team. We held them to 28%. It was just [Broome] was 10-for-13. That’s why he’s an All-American. That’s why he’s a player of the year candidate. He did a hell of a job.”
Broome is the face of a new wave of programs that might lack the traditions of college basketball’s pillar programs but know how to assemble a team in this new climate. For Auburn, Pearl’s dreams have required cash — it’s a minimum $1 million donation to even be considered for season tickets — and the Tigers’ supporters have been willing to write those checks. But the team’s success goes against the historical grain. With just one five-star on the roster, Auburn might set the blueprint for future title contenders in this new era.
As Broome stood on the court in Atlanta and celebrated the second Elite Eight victory in school history with the young men he calls his brothers, “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang blasted through the speakers of State Farm Arena.
Surrounded by cameras, he took it all in and wondered how he might be remembered when all of this is over.
“I hope I go down as one of the best,” he said.
Then he paused.
“I’ve still got two more games.”
