Outside Johni Broome’s childhood bedroom, there are faint pencil scratches on the wall. They progress routinely up the door panel — until a notch that reads “eighth grade.”
The marks then begin jumping.
From eighth to ninth grade, Broome grew two inches. Then came the massive spurt from a freshman to sophomore in high school: six inches. Junior year to senior year, it was another two-and-a-half inches.
“I mean, my knees were hurting a lot,” Broome laughed.
In less than a year, Broome went from shoe size 12 to 13, completely skipped 14, and was a 15 by the end of that summer — 6-foot-3, sure, but with clear signs of growth to come, like a puppy with oversized paws.
“Well, I guess it’s a good thing we call him ‘big dog,'” said Julie Broome, Johni’s mother.
Johni Broome has always been evolving — literally and figuratively. He only stopped growing in stature a few years ago. As a basketball player, likely the largest growth of his playing career thus far came over the past 12 months, when he went from consistent SEC center to a dominant presence, a complete focal point of the Tigers’ system, and a statistical tour de force.
The biggest offseason domino for Bruce Pearl and Auburn basketball fell this week, as Broome — a third team All-American, national defensive player of the year semifinalist and SEC Tournament MVP — will run it back for his fifth college season and third with the Tigers instead of parlaying his monster campaign into the start of his professional career.
Especially after Auburn got the veteran point guard it desired in Furman transfer JP Pegues, most other roster questions for the Tigers are now mundane with Broome’s return. Auburn will be a preseason top-10 team, if not top 5. The bitter taste from an unexpected conclusion to a stellar 2023-24 season will be compounded with Broome’s designs on becoming one of the most decorated players in program history.
Broome has an opportunity to become only the third player in program history to be named a two-time All-American, and can certainly cement himself as one of the all-time greats on the Plains.
The reaction and celebration for getting a player of Broome’s caliber back in the fold is warranted on all levels. Simply put, he transformed himself into a star at Auburn over the past year.
