AUBURN | No. 1 Auburn is a little banged up going into Tuesday night’s game at Vanderbilt.

But that’s no surprise to Bruce Pearl, who has never seen anything like the SEC in his 17th year in the league and 30th as a head coach.

“Without question the most physical league I've ever seen,” said Pearl. “And I'm 64 years old. I've never seen the league this good, and I've never seen it this physical.”

All-American Johni Broome, who missed two games with an ankle injury, is still not 100 percent since returning Jan. 25. He’s still been very productive, however, averaging 19.0 points and 11.6 rebounds in the last five games.

Against a big and physical Florida frontcourt, Broome had 18 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and two blocked shots in Saturday’s 90-81 loss.

“He's not able to push that off, and we have to do a little bit of load management with him,” said Pearl. “And he's not complained one iota. I'm telling you right now: I do imagine that there are other players … who have accomplished as much as he would have accomplished, who was in running for National Player of the Year, who could say, 'Coach, let's wait a couple weeks until I'm 100 percent because I'm worried I may not look my best and it may hurt me in my draft status.’

“Auburn family, not one ounce of that from Johni Broome. ‘Tape me up. Let me get out there. I'll play as many minutes as I possibly can. I'll play as hard as I can.’”

Pearl said Chad Baker-Mazara is also dealing with an injury or two that limited him to 19 minutes against the Gators. He finished with six points, one rebound and two assists.

“Chad's been really banged up,” said Pearl. “We don't like to specifically talk about that, because he's already a pretty big target. So, I don't want to talk about some of the bumps and bruises and things that he’d be in the training room for.”

Tip-off at Memorial Gym is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT on SEC Network.