Three minutes into the Auburn Tigers vs. Yale Bulldogs' March Madness showdown on Friday night, guard Chad Baker-Mazara was expelled for a flagrant-2 foul. The player barely had time to record one assist and one rebound with no points during the game. Baker-Mazara was seen elbowing a rival Yale player, which led him to receive a flagrant-2 foul, which cut his game short.
The internet was quick to react with a series of videos and memes regarding the situation. One of the funniest compares Chad Baker-Mazara with what looks like a running spoiled child:
Others weren't as surprised by the incident, calling it a normal Baker-Mazara situation:
A more dark joke compared Baker-Mazara's exiting the court to undesiring fathers:
According to some, the player seems to act sometimes as if the game is a wrestling match:
One fan couldn't believe Chad Baker-Mazara was playing that rough against the champions of the Ivy League:
Another user compared Chad Baker Mazara's performance to quarterback Aaron Rodgers' regular season debut with the New York Jets:
Wrestling? Make it MMA:
This user seems tired of Baker-Mazara's attitude:
The game was a quick one for the Auburn player:
Auburn's Bruce Pearl disagrees with Chad Baker-Mazara's expulsion
While Auburn coach Bruce Pearl recognized that what Baker-Mazara did was wrong, he disagreed with the typification. According to him, the foul should have been a flagrant 1, not a 2.
Here's what he said during his postgame press conference:
"What he did was wrong, it should have been a flagrant 1, to remove him from the game after an entire season of work is something that — obviously going to disrupt us. He's one of our very best players. It was a retaliation. It was because he got hit in the throat on the play before. He shouldn't have retaliated."
Chad Baker-Mazara is in his fourth school in as many years, having started his college career with Duquesne, then transferred to San Diego State and again to Northwest Florida State College.
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