The game was in its final seconds, the victory at hand, the South Region championship secure. It was an odd time for Auburn guard Chad Baker-Mazara to be yelling angrily at star center Johni Broome.
Baker-Mazara had thrown a long pass ahead to Broome, who had heroically returned to the game from a scary elbow injury minutes earlier. Broome made a tentative effort to catch the pass, and a Michigan State defender had deflected the pass out of bounds with 4.6 seconds left. It was a no-harm play in that moment, but Baker-Mazara’s habitually hot head was steaming. A player with a history of technical fouls and flagrant fouls was in a sudden foul mood.
