SEC player of the year Johni Broome was named unanimously to the AP’s first team All-American list Tuesday afternoon, joining Duke’s Cooper Flagg, Alabama’s Mark Sears, Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. and Purdue’s Braden Smith. The fifth year season was a part of the AP’s third team last season.
Only Broome and Flagg were among the first five on the ballots of all 61 national media members who voted for the weekly AP Top 25.
“He really has,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said of Broome’s increased production in March. “It's great to see Johni have such a good couple of games, and we've got to improve defensively across the board. I thought that Tennessee and Ole Miss did a really good job of attacking our closeouts, and we’ve got to do a better job of keeping people in front.”
Broome became the first Auburn player ever to be named to the AP first team list and became the 17th Tiger to receive any kind of All-American honor. Auburn has now had an AP All-American in three of the last four seasons.
The 6-foot-10 senior joins just John Mengelt and Chuck Person as Auburn players that have received All-American status in back-to-back seasons.
“Well, now we're looking ahead to March Madness tournament,” Broome said after the loss to Tennessee on Saturday. “It hurts but we have to learn from it, watch film. We'll try to get better going into the March Madness.”
Broome and the top-seeded Tigers will begin their run in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, March 20 inside of Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY against the winner of No. 16 seed Alabama State and No. 16 seed Saint Francis on CBS at 1:50 p.m. CST.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
Patrick is a junior from Auburn, Alabama, double majoring in journalism and marketing. He started with The Plainsman in the fall of 2022.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @patrickabingham
