The past four Wooden Award winners have been veteran bigs. If that trend continues this season, it looks like Auburn’s Johni Broome is the leading candidate to make it happen.
Did you see what he did Saturday?
The 6-foot-10 senior took 18 shots, made half of them and finished with 21 points, 20 rebounds, six assists, three blocks and zero turnovers in a 91-53 win over Ohio State. That stat line makes him the first Division I player in the past 25 years to have at least 20 points, at least 20 rebounds and at least five assists with zero turnovers in the same game. According to Jared Berson, there have now been three individual performances of at least 20 points, at least 15 rebounds and at least five assists in Division I games so far this season.
Broome is responsible for all three.
“A 20-20 game — and he missed nine shots,” said Auburn coach Bruce Pearl. “He’s so incredibly talented.”
Broome is now averaging 19.7 points, 12.7 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.8 blocks in 29.7 minutes per game for an Auburn team that’s 9-1 and No. 2 in Sunday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. Not bad for someone who started his college career at Morehead State after being labeled a three-star recruit in the Class of 2020. By the way, if Broome does win the Wooden Award, he’ll join Zach Edey as three-star prospects from the Class of 2020 who went on to hold what amounts to college basketball’s Heisman Trophy.
Tennessee remains No. 1 in the Top 25 And 1 for the 11th consecutive day and is one of nine SEC teams in these rankings — joining No. 2 Auburn, No. 4 Kentucky, No. 6 Alabama, No. 8 Florida, No. 11 Ole Miss, No. 14 Texas A&M, No. 17 Mississippi State and No. 26 Oklahoma. That’s just one way to illustrate why there’s a growing sentiment around the sport that the SEC will send a record of at least 12 schools to the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
As always, we’ll see.
But, right now, the SEC has four of the top eight, seven of the top 24, 12 of the top 40 and nobody lower than 68th at KenPom.com. So it’s strong at the top, strong at the bottom and possibly in the process of turning in the greatest season any conference has ever produced.
Movement within the Top 25 And 1 — specifically Texas A&M jumping to No. 14, and Memphis and UConn re-entering the Top 25 And 1 at No. 21 and No. 22, respectively — caused Maryland, San Diego State, Houston, Oklahoma and Georgia to each be pushed down the rankings, no fault of their own. Georgia actually got pushed completely out, making Mike White’s Bulldogs what amounts to No. 27.
The biggest downward mover?
That’s Gonzaga — and not because there’s anything embarrassing about losing to UConn inside New York’s Madison Square Garden. (Most people do it.) It’s just that, when you take a fresh look at the Zags’ body of work, there’s not as much there as some seem to think. They have zero wins over teams in the top 20 of the Top 25 And 1, only one victory over a top-40 KenPom team, and losses to one team that finished last in the Maui Invitational (UConn) and another that’s 47th at KenPom (in addition to a third loss to Kentucky). So that’s why Gonzaga is down to No. 23 in the Top 25 And 1. If you’re curious, that’s still six spots better than the Zags’ current strength of record.
Top 25 And 1 rankings
In: Texas A&M, Memphis, UConn
Out: Clemson, Arizona State, Georgia
