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It didn’t take long for Auburn forward Chad Baker-Mazara to comment on his early ejection in No. 4 Auburn’s first-round matchup in the NCAA Tournament against No. 13 Yale on Friday.
“Lmao yall lame,” Baker-Mazara wrote in a since-deleted post on X from somewhere — perhaps the Tigers’ locker room — at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena in Washington, adding three laughing emojis at the end.
He followed with another post a few minutes later, writing “I believe in my boys they got em!!”
Three minutes into the first half, Baker-Mazara elbowed Yale’s August Mahoney as the pair sprinted next to each other and neared mid-court, and he was whistled for a flagrant 2 foul — resulting in an automatic ejection.
“What he did was wrong,” head coach Bruce Pearl said in an on-court interview during the first half. “I thought it should’ve been a flagrant 1. To remove him from the game after an entire season of work is something that, obviously it’s gonna disrupt us. He’s one of our very best players.
“And it was a retaliation. It was because he got hit in the throat on a play before. He shouldn’t have retaliated.”
Baker-Mazara appeared surprised when informed of the call before sprinting off the court and down the tunnel toward the locker room.
“I think really when you look, excessive in nature, completely unnecessary, not a basketball play,” CBS rules analyst Gene Steratore said on the broadcast. “When you see him starting up the court, he lines up his opponent, he looks and then we see him deliver. … There is nothing basketball-related with that whatsoever.”
Baker-Mazara started his college career at Duquesne before transferring to San Diego State and Northwest Florida State College — spending one year at each of those three schools.
This season, he arrived at Auburn, starting eight of their 34 games, averaging 10.3 points and 3.8 rebounds per game.
Before the NCAA Tournament began, Baker-Mazara described himself as the “first villain on the team” and said, according to the Montgomery-Advertiser, that he embraced that role on the Tigers if it translates to wins.
“I do like being a little villain when it comes to people not liking me and stuff like that,” Baker-Mazara said, according to the outlet. “It just helps me get better and brings the best out of me.”
But against the Bulldogs, it forced the Tigers to operate for the final 37 minutes without one of their starters, and they also navigated another injury scare when Jaylin Williams appeared shaken up — though he returned to the game.
Baker-Mazara won’t receive a suspension if Auburn defeats Yale — it led 41-34 at halftime — on Friday and advances to Sunday’s Round of 32, according to multiple reports.
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