AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl still isn't happy with a call that led to the costly ejection of Chad Baker-Mazara in the first round of the NCAA tournament, but he's urging fans to lay off his starting guard.
Baker-Mazara threw an elbow at Yale's August Mahoney as the pair ran downcourt just three minutes into the fourth-seeded Tigers' 78-76 loss to 13th-seeded Yale in an East Region opener. Baker-Mazara was called for a Flagrant 2 foul, and Pearl believes it easily could have been a Flagrant 1 that wouldn't have meant an ejection.
"What a really difficult way to learn from that mistake," Pearl said Thursday, rehashing the scenario from last Friday's game in Spokane, Washington. "At the same time, I would also like to remind our fans and anybody listening that Chad owned up to that mistake. And he's apologized for that mistake. And he's taken responsibility for it, although the consequences were really, really significant. And he feels really bad. He's struggling with that right now."
Auburn finished 27-8, its season over abruptly. Before being knocked off by the Bulldogs — who made the NCAA's 68-team field with an automatic bid as the Ivy League tournament champions — the Tigers were on a roll, with a six-game winning streak to finish the regular season and secure the Southeastern Conference tournament title in Nashville.
However frustrated they might be, Pearl isn't happy with fans giving Baker-Mazara grief on social media.
"I'm just going to tell the Auburn family, while I know you're disappointed, if somebody was messing with your son, you'd stand up for your son a little bit, wouldn't you?" Pearl said. "Stop messing with my son. Stop it. He apologized. He made a mistake. And I'm calling you out. I'm not having it. For those on social media that want to continue, unfollow those people. Stop it."