Auburn wing Chad Baker-Mazara was ejected in the opening minutes of Friday’s NCAA Tournament game against Yale, 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.
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1771287687183425539
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.
https://twitter.com/statsbywill/status/1771278739604725952
https://twitter.com/ChadBaker2700/status/1771278167128293416
Baker-Mazara also reposted a video that showed Mahoney hitting Baker-Mazara in the chest one possession prior to the flagrant foul. That incident did not result in any call.
https://twitter.com/PabloEscoburner/status/1771284141142643053
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. 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.
