Auburn vs. Alabama: First 1 vs. 2 showdown in rivalry’s
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Myron MedcalfFeb 14, 2025, 08:30 AM ET Close Covers college basketball Signed up with ESPN.com in 2011
- Graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato
TUSCALOOSA, Ala.– The entire gym froze at the whistle.
“Listen!” shouted Alabama head coach Nate Oats, as he catapulted onto the court from the sideline, refusing to take his foot off the gas at a current practice. “There ought to not be any 3-pointers against this defense! None!”
Three hours southeast, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl remained in a similar state.
“This doesn’t work!” he yelled at his players during a mid-February session, his hands tossed up in the air. “This does not work unless our big guys step up! Do it once again!”
Whenever the Tigers and the Crimson Tide satisfy in a competition that dates back to 1893, there are fireworks. Throughout its history, the pinnacle of this in-state conflict has occurred on the football field, in the Iron Bowl. However Saturday’s marquee matchup in between No. 1 Auburn and No. 2 Alabama in Tuscaloosa (4 p.m. ET, ESPN) will position basketball spotlight in the first 1 vs. 2 meeting in the history of the SEC– not just these 2 teams.The stakes
have actually raised the contest to another threshold.
“That’s definitely a big game,” said Grant Nelson, the Alabama forward who is balancing 12.7 points per game. “That’s what everyone talks about. That’s what all of my good friends wish to come out and see since they want to catch that game.”
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Saturday’s match will be the first in between the leading two groups in college basketball since Gonzaga and UCLA satisfied in Las Vegas during the 2021-22 season, and the first in-conference meeting including the No. 1 and No. 2 groups because Kansas and Oklahoma fought in a triple-overtime affair in 2016, according to ESPN Research.The rise of these 2 teams also represents a shifting hierarchy in college basketball that is challenging the traditional meaning of a “blue blood.” Pearl and Oats, respectively, have actually led Auburn (2019) and Alabama (2024) to the first Last 4 looks in each program’s history. In spite of being referred to as football schools, Alabama and Auburn go into Saturday as two anchors of an SEC primed to break the males’s NCAA tournament record for most conference bids by protecting more than a dozen on Selection Sunday.The programs have actually reached this minute with unique approaches.Mark Sears(17.8 PPG, 4.9 APG)leads the Tide,
who dip into the fastest speed in America. Under Oats, they introduce 3-pointers almost half the time they have the ball– and they score in barrages(they’ve reached 100 points in seven games this season). At Auburn, Johni Broome, a leading candidate for national player of the year, is the dominant force directing a Tigers team that turns every game into a heavyweight bout. It’s the most well balanced team in America, ranking No. 1 in adjusted offending effectiveness and inside the top 20 in adjusted protective effectiveness on KenPom. The Tigers are likewise one of the nation’s most knowledgeable crews(nine senior citizens) and, perhaps, the deepest( 10 players typical a minimum of 10 minutes per game). Fans who have actually endured previous chapters of the Alabama-Auburn competition anticipate an extreme battle, however they likewise caution rankings alone do not suggest everything in this match. Alabama’s Mark Sears and Auburn’s Johni Broome will take on in the highest-profile match between these competing programs. Gary Cosby Jr.-USA TODAY Sports Backers of the Tide and Tigers tussle over, well, anything– and, at any time.”I wish they ‘d just
leave us alone, “Michael Floyd, self-proclaimed Auburn superfan and former
vice president of The Jungle, the Tigers ‘basketball trainee section, told ESPN.”Let us have something for when. We get excellent [at] basketball and now they wish to lastly invest in it? Begin. “I don’t wish to state this, however you need to offer credit where credit is due: What they’re doing over there is insane also, that makes what we’re doing here a lot more unique. Due to the fact that we want to win it when our rival is great. Nobody wishes to see what we saw last weekend when Duke just blew the brakes off North Carolina. We want to see a good, old-fashioned, neck-and-neck competition. “This rivalry featured a variation of that type of energy on the hardwood as early as 2011– before either team was this excellent– and it nearly triggered a fight.Men’s Tournament Obstacle