Mens College Hoops Game of the Week: No. 1 Auburn vs. No. 2 Alabama

Many think of the Iron Bowl as a historic college football rivalry. Auburn and Alabama have had plenty of great games on the gridiron, but a top-two matchup awaits these schools on the hardwood Saturday afternoon.

Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will be rocking as the top-ranked Auburn Tigers come into town to take on the second-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in men’s basketball. It’s the first matchup between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in SEC history.

Alabama leads the all-time series, 100-68.

Auburn lost their second game of the season on Saturday to now-third-ranked Florida, 90-81, but maintained their No. 1 ranking in the AP Top 25 and bounced back with an 80-68 victory at Vanderbilt on Tuesday.

Auburn’s best player, senior forward Johni Broome, tallied 17 points and seven rebounds against the Commodores, his sixth straight game with at least 15 points and five rebounds. He’s second in the SEC with 18.1 points per game and the conference’s leader with 10.7 rebounds a game.

Broome has made the race for the 2025 Wooden Award a race just between him and Duke freshman superstar Cooper Flagg, but he hasn’t been 100% lately due to an ankle sprain he suffered on Jan. 12 against Mississippi State.

Senior guard Chad Baker-Mazara, another key contributor for the Tigers, has been dealing with an injury too, this one a knee injury that kept him out of the starting lineup against Vanderbilt on Tuesday.

With these two injuries, Auburn has seen players who round out their starting lineup step up. Senior guard Chaney Johnson has scored double digits in his last three games while senior forward Denver Jones has done so in three of his last four, and both scored at least 20 on Tuesday.

Bruce Pearl and Auburn will need Broome and Baker-Mazara to be healthy and help out those who have stepped up if they want to beat their rivals.

Alabama has won seven straight games since losing to Ole Miss on January 14, most recently a 103-80 drubbing of Texas on Tuesday. However, four of those victories have come by seven points or fewer.

Preseason All-American senior guard Mark Sears, Alabama’s best player, is third in the SEC with 17.8 points per game, and he leads the NCAA’s best offense, which averages 90.5 points per game.

Much like Auburn, Alabama has a deep lineup, with five players averaging at least 10 points per game and eight healthy players with at least 15 minutes played per game.

Said depth has been dealing with injuries, as freshman forward Derrion Reid missed Tuesday’s bout against the Longhorns with a lower-body injury and senior guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. has been out since Nov. 30, 2024 due to a torn Achilles.

Alabama’s offense is quick-paced and built on three-pointers, which the Crimson Tide did very well on Tuesday against Texas. They went 17-for-29 from beyond the arc, an impressive 59%, with seven different players recording such makes.

Senior forward Grant Nelson is their force in the paint with 12.7 points per game and 8.7 rebounds per game, and guard Labarion Philon has won SEC Freshman of the Week three times this season.

Nate Oats and the Crimson Tide are looking to add a second win against a current AP top-10 team, with the other being on Jan. 11 against now eighth-ranked Texas A&M.

Something that can change the tides of this game is how well these teams take care of the ball. Auburn turns the ball over just 9.25 times a game, second-fewest in the SEC, while Alabama’s 13.42 turnover per game figure is the second-most in the conference.

These two teams will meet again in Auburn on March 8, but it feels like whoever wins this game will have the inside track to the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament.

This game will air at 4 p.m. EST on Saturday on ESPN and will stream on the ESPN App.

Owen Klein is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email ojk5092@psu.edu.