Auburn lost a member of its starting lineup a little more than three minutes into its NCAA Tournament opener against Yale. As the Tigers were pushing the ball up the floor, starting forward Chad Baker-Mazara wound up his elbow and hit Bulldogs guard August Mahoney in the chest. While there are times where this could be waved away as incidental contact, Baker-Mazara clearly turned his head and looked before he threw the elbow, which is about as close to an automatic ejection as you’ll see.
Regardless, the officials took a look at what happened and handed out a Flagrant 2.
Chad Baker-Mazara was hit with a flagrant 2 foul for this elbow and ejected from (4) Auburn’s first round matchup against (13) Yale.
Good call or too harsh?
pic.twitter.com/xUfeSwxeTi
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 22, 2024
Right after getting into the locker room, Baker-Mazara picked up his phone and did what most people would do in this situation: started posting. Apparently, one of his posts got deleted not long after it went up.
Auburn player tweeting not even 10 minutes after being ejected, the NCAA Tournament is simply the greatest pic.twitter.com/jAckY60Pzq
— Will Warren (@statsbywill) March 22, 2024
Baker-Mazara then decided to offer up a word of support for his teammates, expressing his optimism that they’d be able to take care of business against the Ivy League champions without him on the floor.
I believe in my boys they got em!!
— Chad Baker-Mazara (@ChadBaker2700) March 22, 2024
The matchup between Auburn and Yale is the 4-13 game in the East Region, with the winner earning a spot in the next round against the defending national champions, UConn.