Rick Barnes dismisses impact of Johni Broome’s injury status on gameplan

Johni Broome scored 16 points and hauled in 13 rebounds during Auburn‘s 53-51 win over Tennessee in his return from his ankle injury.

The Wooden Award hopeful was questionable coming into the matchup, but Vols head coach Rick Barnes was prepared for his presence in the game.

“There was no doubt in our mind he was going to play. We knew he was going to play. So we prepared all week for him to be there,” Barnes said.

The 6-foot-10, 235-pound Broome had missed the two games previous games that Auburn played against Mississippi State and Georgia since suffering what appeared to be a significant ankle injury in the second half of the Tigers’ 66-63 win over South Carolina on Jan. 11.

The talented big man went up for a rebound and landed on teammate Chaney Johnson’s foot, rolling his ankle in the process. Broome scored 6 points with 3 rebounds and 2 blocks against the Gamecocks in 24 minutes prior to going down.

In the end, Broome and the Tigers were too much or the Volunteers on Saturday. Barnes gave credit to the group head coach Bruce Pearl has put together this season.

“We battled a great basketball team and a team that is extremely well coached and I didn’t think the crowd affected us,” Barnes said. “And I give that credit to our older guys, especially Mashack. I mean, he’s the only guy that played here, on this team. No one else on our team had been in this building. Zakai, that was the year he got hurt and I mean, Zakai was just, what can I say about him? Just what he does and how he plays and he’s such a heartbeat of our team and what he does.

“But I’m just proud of every guy. I just thought that we came in and battled the No. 1 ranked team in the country. Took it down to the last possession with a chance to win it.”

Now, the Vols will turn toward Tuesday’s matchup against a Kentucky team that has lost its last two games. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. ET live on ESPN.