What Bruce Pearl said about Tennessee, Johni Broome's status for Auburn

Bruce Pearl on Thursday said he was still unsure of the status of center Johni Broome for No. 1 Auburn’s game against No. 6 Tennessee Saturday night at Neville Arena in Auburn.

“I’ll know more tomorrow and Saturday,” Pearl said Thursday afternoon of Broome’s ankle injury, according to Auburn Live. “I don’t know whether he’s questionable or probable, but I do know he’s going to try and move around a little bit today and we’ll just have to see how he does.”

Auburn (17-1, 5-0 SEC) and Tennessee (17-2, 4-2) on Saturday night are scheduled for an 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN. ESPN’s College GameDay will broadcast live from Auburn Saturday morning.

An SEC injury report will be issued by both teams Friday night, with players dealing with injuries designated as available, probable, questionable, doubtful or out. The injury report will be updated pregame Saturday evening, with players listed as available, game-time decision or out.

Johni Broome leads Auburn in points, rebounds, assists and minutes 

Broome injured his ankle in the second half of Auburn’s 66-63 win at South Carolina on January 11. The Tigers beat Mississippi State 88-66 at home in their first game without Broome and won 70-68 at Georgia on Saturday. Auburn did not have a midweek game this week.

Broome leads Auburn in points (17.9 per game), rebounds (10.7), assists (3.2) and minutes (27.4) while shooting 54.7% from the field. 

Auburn has been ranked No. 1 in both the Associated Press Top 25 and the Coaches Poll the last two weeks. Tennessee was ranked No. 1 the previous five weeks, before losing at Florida on January 7.

“These two teams, Tennessee and Auburn, have been the best two teams in the SEC…over the last eight years,” Pearl said.

“I’m proud to be a part of that in some smaller way, also proud that I was at both Tennessee and helped get that thing going a little bit, and now at Auburn.”

What Bruce Pearl said about Tennessee on Thursday

On Tennessee 

“They play as good a defense as anybody in the country. Their field goal percentage defense, the three-point defense, they’re one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country, and they really shooting it really well from three. They’ve got three or four guys that can really, really knock it down. It’s a tough cover. Only four teams have scored 70 points or more against them all season long. They’ve played an incredible schedule and so we’re gonna have to be, you know, at our best.”

On Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler

“He’s one of the leading assist guys in the country and he’s a brilliant passer. He’s already set the all-time record for Tennessee and steals, and he’s been the face of that program for, you know, a long, long time. In many ways, they go as he goes and he always goes pretty well. He’s a great three-point shooter with a great percentage and he’s hard to stay in front of. You have to game plan for Zakai Ziegler. He will go down as one of the all time greats in the history of Tennessee basketball.”

Tennessee’s defense and the challenge Auburn faces, possibly without Johni Broome

“You can throw a ball in to Johni and get buckets and you can play inside-out basketball if they double. Obviously, you don’t have that. You have to find other ways to score. They have a system of defense where they’re able to guard everything. They do it with great ball pressure, they do it by extending catches, they do it with athleticism, they don’t take possessions off. They’re going to have everything we do extremely well scouted and fits within the framework of what they guard. And so it’ll come down to being able to execute, make some tough shots, and you’re just not going to get anything easy against Tennessee. They’re very physical offensively, very physical defensively, and you’ve got to be able to handle that physicality on both ends of the floor.”

On the impact of Dylan Cardwell and Ja’Heim Hudson at Georgia without Johni Broome

“Dylan Cardwell had an impacted game with his defense, his block shots and his offensive rebounding in a huge way. We were, I believe we’re plus 18, you know, with Dylan on the floor and we only got four points from Dylan and Chaney (Johnson) and yet, we’re able to win that basketball game. But we don’t win the game without Ja’Heim Hudson. We just don’t. He plays 18 minutes in that game, he played really good defense. He kept Georgia’s size off the boards and that’s what a team is all about. Like, like no matter what happens this year, no matter where we go, what we do, we would not have beaten Georgia at Georgia without Hudson.”

Auburn forward Dylan Cardwell’s defensive ability

“Dylan Cardwell impacts winning in a huge, huge way. And there are so many things that Dylan does in the college game that translates to the NBA in the sense that as a finisher. I don’t know that Dylan Cardwell does not get talked about enough, like the national defensive player of the year. He won’t block enough shots to win that award. He won’t have enough steals to win that award. But if we can keep on winning, if we can keep on winning and we can keep on pointing that out — you just ask coaches around the country, you know, anybody he plays against … he’s the best defender in our league. That’s a strong statement, but he just is, because he does sit on the inside. He does it on the perimeter. It’s not a knock against anybody else, but he can guard one through five.”

Auburn having single-digit assist totals in the last two games without Johni Broome

“Well, I mean a lot just depends on how we’re being guarded. It doesn’t mean that we’re not sharing the ball. Part of, let’s just say if you said single digit is we didn’t make as many baskets, so therefore we had fewer assists. Johni is one of our better, you know, I think he’s second on a team in assists… obviously you’re missing a big, playmaking part of our offense and a lot of the baskets that we get are from Johni’s passing.”

The rebounding battle between Tennessee and Auburn

“Well, Florida (who beat Tennessee) is one of the best rebounding teams in college basketball. So, you know, you go in there that game, that’s a must. And at Vanderbilt, you know, they’re really able to guard and they made some shots. I don’t think you need to, I don’t think you necessarily need to beat Tennessee on the boards, you just can’t let them beat you bad on the boards.”