There has never been an Alabama-Auburn game with this much at stake

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Alabama and Auburn have never played a rivalry game like this.

Not in football and certainly not in basketball.

Yet when the Crimson Tide and Tigers square off for the 171st edition of the “Iron Bowl of Basketball” Saturday at Coleman Coliseum, with ESPN’s “College GameDay” on hand, it will mark the first meeting between the two rivals as No. 1 vs. No. 2 — in any sport.

Or No. 2 vs. No. 1, depending on which Top 25 poll you favor. Either way, Alabama (No. 1, Coaches Poll) and Auburn (No. 1, AP poll) will settle that debate — for now — beginning at 3 p.m. CT Saturday in a nationally televised game on ESPN. It will be the first game between No. 1 and No. 2 in SEC basketball history.

The Tide and Tigers have come a long way from where they were as basketball programs earlier this century. For that matter, so has much of the SEC, which has as many as 13 of its now 16 league members still in a position to reach the NCAA Tournament.

Who could ever forget such barnburners as Auburn 49, Alabama 37? Or Alabama 51, Auburn 49? Those games happened in 2013 and 2011, respectively. And it’s only a snapshot of the state of the two programs before the arrivals of Nate Oats in Tuscaloosa and Bruce Pearl on the Plains.

For a long time, Alabama was a basketball program that trailed only the vaunted Kentucky Wildcats in SEC championships and win percentage. But after Mark Gottfried’s 2005-06 team until Oats’ arrival, the Crimson Tide made just two NCAA Tournament appearances.

One came in 2012 when a team that featured JaMychal Green, Trevor Releford, Tony Mitchell and freshman Trevor Lacey led Alabama to the tournament and a first-round game against Creighton. Anthony Grant’s Crimson Tide fell 58-57 to the Bluejays. Alabama wouldn’t be back in The Dance until another six long years had passed.

With former NBA player and coach Avery Johnson as the Tide’s coach by then, a young Collin Sexton carried Alabama into the field of 68 with a coast-to-coast buzzer-beater to knock off Texas A&M in a…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/never-alabama-auburn-game-much-170117785.html

Author : Roll Tide Wire

Publish date : 2025-02-14 17:01:00

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