In a team filled with talent and personality, few Auburn basketball players draw as much attention as Chad Baker-Mazara.

The senior wing from the Dominican Republic is Auburn’s second-leading scorer (13 PPG) and is one of the most passionate players in the country. That passion is heavily embraced by Auburn fans, but draws ire from opposing fans and players.

One example was Tuesday night’s 98-70 win against Oklahoma, a game in which Baker-Mazara was once again successful in getting under his opponents’ skin. It even drew what looked like an elbow to the midsection from Sooners guard Jeremiah Fears as the two came up the court in the second half.

Tensions in the game bubbled throughout and it eventually ended with Baker-Mazara receiving both a common foul and technical foul in one sequence, giving him his fifth foul and ending his night.

It happened after Baker-Mazara fouled Fears on an inbounds pass, resulting in Fears getting up and trying to get in Baker-Mazara’s facing while talking to him. Baker-Mazara responded with words of his own, but there was no physical contact between the two players after the play.

Head coach Bruce Pearl passionately laid into his team during the ensuing timeout, and tensions seemed to lower from there.

“Just represent the name on the front of the jersey and the name of the back of the jersey,” Pearl said after the game when asked what his message was. “Play how we play.”

Pearl was asked during his Friday news conference about Baker-Mazara’s technical foul and whether his passionate and sometimes chippy play was something he discussed with him.

“Chad’s done a great job not taking the bait. He’s really, really, really improved playing with passion and energy and emotion, and yeah, for some reason, the Oklahoma game, there was a lot of that going on and we haven’t seen a ton of that all year,” Pearl said.

Last season, the most notable instance of Baker-Mazara’s antics hurting the team was when he was ejected for elbowing an opposing player against Yale. Auburn eventually lost that game, exiting the NCAA Tournament in the first round.

That hasn’t been as much of an issue for Baker-Mazara and Auburn this season, but Pearl pointed out that teams could still try and provoke Baker-Mazara.

“We’re trying to stay away from it. So, I’m sure it’s something that could be part of somebody’s game plan to be overly physical or try to get him stirred up, try to get him out of the game,” Pearl said.

Auburn’s next game comes Saturday afternoon against No. 6 Florida. Tipoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. and the game will be streaming live on ESPN2.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m