Nate Oats evaluates what makes Auburn's Wendell Green difficult to defend against

Every time Alabama and Auburn meet on the court, you can feel the intensity of the basketball rivalry take another step forward. Wednesday’s matchup is going to be a special one as well, with the Crimson Tide having the opportunity to clinch an outright SEC Championship. Nobody would love to prevent that more than their in-state rivals and especially point guard Wendell Green.

Green has been in the Auburn program for two seasons and has already put his stamp on an Iron Bowl. He had 24 points back at Neville Arena, single handily keeping the Tigers in the game. Head coach Nate Oats admits Green is a difficult player to guard, even with how deep of a defensive roster Alabama deploys.

“When he takes threes, he kind of kicks the leg out,” Oats said. “We foul him taking threes too much, we let him get threes off. He’s quick. He’s great at getting a shot off. We tried all different kinds of guys, we didn’t do a very good job. We had smaller, quicker guys to stay in front of him, put some bigger guys on him. Honestly, the guy that did the best job was Rylan Griffen.”

Green took 19 shots on the Feb. 11 matchup, shooting 36.8% from the field. The three-point shooting was a lot better, making four of nine attempts. In what can be a tough offense at times for Bruce Pearl, Green is always good to get some shots up.

Alabama will rightfully walk onto the floor as a favorite, having an undefeated record at Coleman Coliseum. But this is a rivalry game where anything can happen. Players make their name in these matchups and Green can be remembered for a long time on the Plains with another big performance.

“We got to challenge some of our smaller guards,” Oats said. “Got to do better. We’ve discussed maybe putting more length on him but he’s a really good player. Teams have great game plans to stop really good players and they still get buckets… We’ve got to do a better job on him second time around.”

There are multiple point guards Oats can deploy, beginning with Mark Sears. Maybe Griffen gets a few extra minutes based on his performance on the other side of the state.

Alabama has its own offensive problems to worry about but if they are going to claim a third conference title in as many years, stopping Green will be priority No. 1.