AUBURN | Chad Baker-Mazara has had his share of untimely technical fouls. Most notably a flagrant 2 and ejection in Auburn’s loss to Yale in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament.

But there’s been a noticeable change this season.

The senior, who is the second-leading scorer for top-ranked Tigers, has managed to keep his cool during his most recent dust-ups on the court.

“The scouting report will be to try and hit him and hold him and grab him and have some extracurricular contact with him and that stuff would upset any player,” said AU coach Bruce Pearl. “But he gets it every single night. He'll get it at Georgia. He'll get it against Tennessee next week.

“But he has done a better job sort of realizing this is just how people are gonna guard me to try to stop me, and he's done, I would say, just learning and handling his passion. He's so passionate and he's such an effective player that he's playing through some of that garbage.”

Recently, Baker-Mazara has turned the tables on Auburn’s opponents, using their aggressiveness against him to bait them into fouls.

“Chad's a smart player,” said Chaney Johnson. “He's a very talented player, and you feel me, a lot of this don't get seen, but he talks trash and he'll bait people into fouling him, so that just goes to show what type of player Chad is, and the type of dog mentality he always plays with.”

The passion and energy that Baker-Mazara brings to the floor is also a huge motivating force for the Tigers.

“CB feeds off The Jungle. And we feed off CB,” said Johnson. “So it just gives us energy and just allows us to lock in more and be more focused to try and build that lead even more.”

Auburn plays at No. 23 Georgia Saturday at noon CT on SEC Network.