Bruce Pearl couldn’t script that scene. He wouldn’t if he could. The best player on his best team was lying flat on his back. Johni Broome’s hands covered the pained expression on his face thanks to the terrible pain in his left ankle. In those awful moments, the best chance to win a national championship in Auburn basketball history started flashing before everyone’s eyes.

It had happened before to this program just six years ago. In the middle of an unprecedented NCAA Tournament march, halfway through a three-game rampage in which new-blood Auburn spilled the blue blood of Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky, freshman phenom Chuma Okeke went down and out with a torn knee ligament.

That massive twist of misfortune didn’t prevent Auburn from finishing off UNC in the Sweet 16 and John Calipari in the Elite Eight, and may even have provided a temporary adrenaline injection, but it sent the school to its first Final Four at less than full strength. In the national semifinals, the Tigers couldn’t overcome Okeke’s absence, Virginia’s toughness and the crunch-time incompetence of the striped shirts.