This is an opinion column.

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Chad Baker-Mazara is quite the talker these days, but he knew very little English when he first came to the United States.

“Maybe one or two sentences,” he said.

Considering Baker-Mazara’s talent for trash talking, it was probably just enough to get him in trouble on the basketball courts of New Jersey.

Baker-Mazara is the rangy, 6-7 wingman for the Auburn basketball Tigers. He’s all heart and elbows during games, and a magnetic, charismatic laugh track in the locker room.

Baker-Mazara is from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. How learned he was being shipped off to the United States by his parents is a funny story. He’s the first native Dominican in the history of Auburn basketball, which is noteworthy enough, but he scored a team-high 14 points for the Tigers in Saturday’s bruising 73-66 victory against Mississippi State.

The victory put Auburn in the championship game of the SEC tournament and pushed Baker-Mazara into the spotlight.

Auburn plays Florida at noon on Selection Sunday in the SEC tournament championship game. It’s the Tigers’ first championship game since that banner season in 2019. This team is built differently than the group that reached the Final Four. They might not have as many 3-point assassins, but these Tigers are tougher than tire irons.

Mississippi State came to Nashville wanting to fight for everything. Auburn absorbed the punches and countered with some of their own.

“When it comes to a game like that, it’s who wants it more and who’s more physical at the end,” Baker-Mazara said. “Who’s more composed?”

Physical? This game was three yards and a cloud of dust on Jefferson Pilot. It was Auburn 3, Mississippi State 2 on parquet. It was drunken boxing with a side of basketball and Baker-Mazara was right smack dab in the middle of it all.

Baker-Mazara even picked up a technical foul along the way when he elbowed Mississippi State’s Cameron Matthews in the chin. I told Baker-Mazara after the game that he had sneaky elbows. He laughed.

After a review by officials, not sneaky enough.

A transfer with experience and a long wingspan, Baker-Mazara is an X-factor for an Auburn team transforming into a serious national contender for March Madness. I love his game, but also his energy. Having an emotive, fun-loving player like Baker-Mazara this time of year is critical for teams hoping to make deep postseason runs.

He keeps things interesting, and he’s well-traveled.

Baker-Mazara moved from Santo Domingo to Colonia, N.J., before his junior year of high school. He didn’t learn he was leaving for the U.S. until a week before it happened. His parents kept it a secret.

“It wasn’t my decision,” Baker-Mazara told me after the game. “It was my mom, dad and grandfather’s decision…They literally planned out the whole thing throughout the summer and then at the end of the summer they call me one day and I’m at my buddy’s and they’re like come home. ‘Yeah, so next Monday you’re living with your grandfather in the U.S.’

“I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’

“‘Yeah, you’re going to leave all this and start a new life out there.’”

Baker-Mazara hit a major growth spurt the summer before leaving for New Jersey. He grew six inches. That’s when his family decided it was time to go live with grandfather Bailey Baker. The son of a basketball coach, Baker-Mazara has been on the move ever since.

His first stop in college was at Duquesne. After that, he played at San Diego State for a season. Then he was at Northwest Florida State College. He was back in Santo Domingo with his parents when Auburn called him about this season.

How did Bruce Pearl and his assistants sell Baker-Mazara on Auburn? Another great story.

“I seen how they interacted with my mother when I went to my visit,” Baker-Mazara said. “My momma doesn’t really speak English. She kind of understands it if you talk slowly, but I seen them with their phone, talking to Siri, trying to translate stuff to Spanish the whole three days we were there.

“That really touched my heart because most schools that I went to, they were just, ‘Oh, hi mom,’ but kept her to the side. But my momma, that’s like my heart and soul, so seeing that little thing that they were trying to do just to make her feel comfortable, and make her feel at home, that just, like, broke my heart and I was like, OK, these guys, they’re going to take care of me. Just little things, they really mean a lot, at least to me.”

It shows on the court, and now Baker-Mazara wants to take care of his Auburn teammates. He says he gets that from his mom, Carmen Mazara.

“I could say that I’m a person who really cares a lot,” Baker-Mazara said. “When I say I’m down for you, I really mean it. I’ll give you my all. I said to these guys, ‘If I have to, God forbid the worst happen out there for us to win, I’m throwing it all out there and my mom built that in me.”

Mom made a winner and Baker-Mazara is representing his family, new school and home country with pride this March.

SOUND OFF

Got a question about the changing landscape of college football, spring practice or March Madness? Want to get something off your chest? Send Joe a question about what’s on your mind for the weekly mailbag. Let your voice be heard. Ask him anything.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the most controversial sports book ever written, “We Want Bama”.