High Praise for Auburn's Johni Broome

Auburn Tigers forward Johni Broome enters year three with the Tigers with some high expectations.

Auburn Tigers forward Johni Broome is predicted to be a top-10 player next season. / James Snook-USA TODAY Sports

In a recent post on X, College Basketball Report made its case for why Auburn Tigers forward Johni Broome would be a top-10 player in the country next season. 

Johni Broome is a top-10 player in the country next season, and here's why:

• Broome had the third-highest BPM in the COUNTRY among qualified players in 2024, trailing only Zach Edey and Donovan Clingan.
• Broome placed third in the KenPom POTY standings, behind Zach Edey and… pic.twitter.com/8uRiHSFoRT

— College Basketball Report (@CBKReport) July 10, 2024

• Broome had the third-highest BPM in the COUNTRY among qualified players in 2024, trailing only Zach Edey and Donovan Clingan.
• Broome placed third in the KenPom POTY standings, behind Zach Edey and Tristen Newton.

Per 40 stats: 26.5 PPG, 13.8 RPG, 3.5 APG , 1.4 SPG, 3.6 BPG while shooting 55%.

-  College Basketball Report

This post stood out enough that the Auburn Basketball' X account made a graphic to show it off. 

So let’s break down these talking points to put what makes Broome a top-10 player into greater perspective. 

For those unfamiliar with BPM, it stands for Box Plus/Minus. According to Basketball Reference, Box Plus/Minus “estimates a basketball player’s contribution to the team when that player is on the court.” The stat aims to put a player’s contributions into a single number. An average player is 0.0.  

While this definition comes from the NBA stats page, it’s the same idea - just scales differently. 

According to this stat, Broome made the third-greatest impact of any player in college basketball last season. In turn, with Edey and Clingan going to the NBA, he is the most impactful player returning to college this season.

Broome also finished third in the KenPom POTY standings. This is the Ken Pomeroy Player of the Year. KenPom is a popular college basketball advanced stats page that ranks teams and players based on how efficient they are offensively and defensively. I won’t try to spell it out too much further, not trying to drag you back into your daunting college stats class. The point here is the analytics rate Broome highly, and he is the highest-rated player returning to college this season. 

This last stat is much easier to digest. Per 40 just means it’s Broome’s stats based on if he played a full 40 minutes - he averaged 24.7 minutes played in 2023-24. 

Broome’s season stats were  16.5 PPG, 8.5 RPG,  2.2 APG, 0.9 SPG, 2.2 BPG. But his per 40 is 26.5 PPG, 13.8 RPG,  3.5 APG, 1.4 SPG, 3.6 BPG. 

It’s about what he would be on pace for, and Broome puts up great number for how many minutes he gets on the court. 

Even without the advanced stats argument, the expectations are there. Broome was named to AP’s Third Team All-American last season. He received high recognition last year, and that’s carrying over into 2024-25. 

All that’s left to find out is if he’ll take another leap forward and live up to the hype.