Auburn senior forward Johni Broome has missed two straight games after suffering an ankle injury in a win over South Carolina on Jan. 11.
Broome, a strong contender for the national Player of the Year award this season, is “working really hard” to get back on the court as soon as possible for the Tigers, according to head coach Bruce Pearl – especially with a Top 10 matchup against Tennessee taking place on Saturday night in Auburn.
While speaking with AL.com during the Birmingham Tip Off Club on Monday, Pearl didn’t give away much information regarding Broome’s status for Saturday night.
“I don’t anticipate he would practice much, certainly at the beginning of the week,” Pearl said on Monday via AL.com. “We’ll probably evaluate him later on this week.”
As of the time of this publication, there hasn’t been much of an update to Broome’s status with just a short time remaining until the game. Auburn did not have a midweek game this week, which naturally limited the chances for the Tigers’ media members to ask about any updates.
Auburn associate head coach Steven Pearl did appear on The Next Round on Tuesday and gave a bit of information, saying that Broome was indeed out of a boot at that time.
“Not yet,” Pearl responded on Tuesday when asked if Broome was practicing. “He’s out of his boot, so that’s progress, and I would imagine as the week goes on he’ll continue to rehab his ankle with our training staff and our strength and conditioning staff. Just kind of see what his pain tolerance is and what his level of comfort is. We leave that totally up to him. If the doctors say he is cleared and Johni doesn’t think he can be 100%, then we don’t want Johni to go. We don’t want Johni to come back until Johni is ready to come back.”
Johni Broome is out of his boot but has not started practicing yet, @StevenPearl22 tells us.
“If the doctors say he is cleared and Johni doesn’t think he can be 100%, then we don’t want Johni to go. We don’t want Johni to come back until he is ready to come back.” pic.twitter.com/O13eXaAiqH
— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) January 21, 2025
More from RTI: Where Tennessee’s Metrics Rank Prior to Road Test at Auburn
This is the story to be watching for Auburn in the lead-up to the game, though.
As Tennessee fans are well aware of during previous meetings, Broome is a game-changing forward for the Tigers. In three career games against Tennessee, Broome has totaled 51 points and 25 rebounds.
Prior to his injury just less than two weeks ago, Broome was averaging 17.9 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game for the nation’s top team. The Florida native is currently tallying the best scoring average, rebounding average, and assists average in his five-year career so far this season.
The SEC injury report will be released on Friday night before the game on Saturday and could give a good indication as to what Broome’s role will be against Tennessee – a supportive teammate from the bench or a superstar returning from injury. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Auburn hasn’t left the win column in the two weeks that Broome has been gone, though. After Auburn rallied to beat South Carolina by three points during the game Broome sustained his injury, the Tigers beat No. 15 Mississippi State by 22 points at home before surviving No. 23 Georgia in Athens last Saturday.
No. 1 Auburn will host No. 6 Tennessee at 8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday night. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for live, on-site coverage of the game on Saturday in Alabama.