The Auburn Tigers men’s basketball team will be without one of its starting forwards for much of its game against Yale in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

Auburn junior Chad Baker-Mazara was whistled for a Flagrant 2 personal foul after elbowing Yale’s August Mahoney while the two ran down the court.

As a result, Baker-Mazara was ejected from the game with 16:59 to play in the first half. Prior to the ejection, Baker-Mazara had played in all three minutes of the game but hadn’t yet recorded a stat.

According to an Auburn spokesperson, Baker-Mazara’s ejection will not roll over into the next game, should the Tigers advance in to the next round of the NCAA Tournament.

“Obviously, we just saw the replay and what he did was wrong. I thought it should’ve been a flagrant 1, not a 2, especially in a game after an entire season of work is something that’s obviously going to disrupt us,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said of the ejection during the television broadcast. “He is one of our very best players. It was a retaliation. He had just got hit in the throat the play before and he shouldn’t have retaliated.”

In college basketball, a flagrant 1 foul is defined as “excessive in nature or unnecessary or avoidable, uncalled for or not required by the circumstances of the play” and results in the other team getting two free throws and the ball — much like a technical foul.

Meanwhile, a flagrant 2 is one step higher from a flagrant 1.

“The rules committee added more words to describe this scenario, including brutal, harsh or cruel or dangerous or punishing,” the NCAA writes of a flagrant 2, which results in the player getting ejected, as well as the other team getting two free throws and the ball.

Coming into the afternoon, Baker-Mazara was averaging 10.3 points per game and 3.8 rebounds per game.