Johni Broome is back for Auburn, returning to the court Saturday night for the first time since injuring his ankle on Jan. 11.
Broome has missed the last two games for the Tigers with his injury, and his status for the game against Tennessee was a game-time decision. He was questionable as of Friday night and did not return to the starting lineup vs. the Vols.
However, Broome did receive the green light during warmups and returned for Bruce Pearl off the bench. It will be interesting to see how close to 100% Broome is and how much the Tigers let him play, but his return is understandably massive.
Broome is Auburn’s leader in scoring, rebounding, assists and blocks. His average of 27.4 minutes per game across his first 16 games is also tops for the Tigers, but that number is likely to go down a bit on Saturday.
Broome missed his first shot back but has already chipped in 4 points and an offensive rebound while shooting 2-for-4 in his first 5 minutes of action.
Saturday’s game is a massive one with Auburn looking to remain undefeated in SEC play. On the other side, Tennessee already has 2 losses in the conference and needs to avoid a 3rd from falling well off the pace of the league leaders entering February.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
