Johni Broome wasn't angry at Chad Baker-Mazara following the latter's ejection from Auburn's 93-91 loss to Alabama on Saturday. Still, the Wooden Award candidate let CBM know that the team would rather not see that happen again.
Broome's message was simple: learn from this and be better.
"My message to Chad is to learn from his mistakes. Want to change, want to do better for the team and for himself. We all love Chad, we still had the opportunity to win the game without Chad. Obviously he's down on himself, as well, because he'd rather be out there with us. The message to him is to try to learn from his mistakes," Broome said, per 247 Sports.
While he didn't directly call CBM's actions dumb, Nate Oats told reporters postgame what he said to the Crimson Tide -- and it reads as though he felt what Baker-Mazara did was dumb.
"(Baker-Mazara) was no longer available for his team," Oats said. "I just told our team, don't do anything dumb. Let's just be the hardest-playing, toughest, most together team on the floor, and the score would take care of itself."
The person who got on CBM the least was seemingly Bruce Pearl. The Tigers head coach implied that it might have been retaliatory because he "didn't see the full play."
Under no circumstances, though, should any physicality on a basketball court lead to an elbow to the back of the head. Such a strike is dangerous and could be life-threatening. It doesn't belong on any basketball court, let alone a collegiate one.
Baker-Mazara wasn't the sole reason Auburn lost to Alabama, but the Tigers have lost two high-profile games in March each of the last two years after his ejection.
It took a long time for Auburn to live that Yale loss down. Hopefully, they can get over this one before the SEC Tournament and March Madness begin.