Auburn forward Chad Baker-Mazara was ejected from the First Round of March Madness at approximately 1:40 p.m. local time on Friday. He posted on social media less than 10 minutes later.
It was a remarkably fast and extremely funny turnaround.
Baker-Mazara, the Tigers’ third-leading scorer, threw an elbow into the chest of an opponent while turning back up the floor on a fast break. A very close-by official saw the whole thing in real time and called him for a common foul. Upon further review, it was deemed a Flagrant 2.
As a result, Baker-Mazara was sent off of the court for an early shower.
— wow that was crazy (@CowardlyDoggo) March 22, 2024
Although it was the right call by rule, because it was a non-basketball play, Yale guard August Mahoney sold the foul as best he could. And Baker-Mazara’s elbow was in retaliation.
Mahoney threw an elbow to his throat on the play prior — right in front of the same referee — and should have received a Flagrant 2 of his own.
It appears this from August Mahoney was why CBM retaliated pic.twitter.com/LJLdXHXzqn
— Connor O'Gara (@cjogara) March 22, 2024
Somehow, the official either did not see or let it play on.
If it was the former, that is unlucky for Auburn. If it was the latter, then there was no reason that Chad Baker-Mazara should have been tossed for doing the exact same thing that Mahoney did to him.
Either way, the Tigers were on the wrong end of a very unfortunate sequence of events. Mahoney should have been called for a Flagrant 2, which would not have resulted in the same for Baker-Mazara.
As soon as the call was made official, Auburn’s 6-foot-7 junior went sprinting back to the locker room.
He must have grabbed his phone as soon as he got back because he did not waste any time in posting online. The first post went live at 1:49 PDT, which was approximately 7 minutes after the ejection.
It was up for less than 60 seconds before Baker-Mazara pulled it down.
The second post is far more positive!
Baker-Mazara’s ejection was warranted, based solely on his isolated incident. The circumstances surrounding the exchange tell a very different story, as indicated by his since-deleted post on X.