Auburn wing Chad Baker-Mazara was ejected minutes into the Tigers' NCAA Tournament game loss to Yale on Friday, and he dealt with it by hopping on social media and posting through it.
Baker-Mazara was ejected three minutes into Friday’s game for elbowing Yale’s August Mahoney in the chest on a non-basketball play. The Auburn wing was given a flagrant-2 foul for a violent non-basketball play, which resulted in an automatic ejection.
Baker-Mazara’s reaction to his ejection was apparently to head to the locker room and grab his phone. He — or at least someone using his X account — posted a flippant reaction that has since been deleted, then followed it up by saying he was confident that his teammates would get the job done in his absence.
Baker-Mazara also reposted a video that showed him getting hit in the chest by Mahoney one possession prior to the flagrant foul. That incident did not result in any call.
Obviously, Baker-Mazara believes that Mahoney should have faced the same consequences that he did. However, Mahoney’s move was a lot less blatant, and the referees were never going to give Baker-Mazara a pass for retaliating.
Auburn was certainly hurt by the ejection, as Baker-Mazara is one of the team’s top defenders and a skilled shooter. The 13-seed Bulldogs upset the 4-seed Tigers, 78-76. And the game went down to the wire.
Bruce Pearl will not be happy with his reaction, nor will he be pleased with his player apparently venting frustration on social media just minutes after being ejected, but this is apparently something of a trend at Auburn.
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