Alabama looking forward to playing in 'rowdy' road environment at Auburn

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama men’s basketball team’s four-game winning streak started with a win over then-No. 8 Auburn on Jan. 24, and the 16th-ranked Crimson Tide will look to keep its streak alive in its return trip to Neville Arena on Wednesday, Feb. 7.

The Tigers’ home court is a difficult place to play, as Auburn is on a 14-game winning streak in Auburn – the longest streak in Division I. But Alabama is looking forward to the matchup.

“We’re going to have to play a lot better in a lot of ways because they play a lot better at home,” said Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats on Thursday. “They haven’t lost at home all year. I think they’re the only SEC team that still is undefeated at home. They play a lot better at home, so we’re going to have to be better.

“But we’ve got two good basketball teams. We’re both ranked in the 20. This game has become a national-level game. Not just a big game in the state of Alabama, it’s a big game in the state of college basketball across the country now. I’m looking forward to it. 

“It’s one of the best environments, I think, in college basketball over there. Their fans do a great job giving them a homecourt advantage, and their players play up to it. It’ll be a fun night.”

Auburn (18-4, 7-2) SEC is one of 34 teams in the country and the only SEC that is undefeated at home this season (13-0). The Tigers are also 7-1 against ranked teams at Neville Arena since it opened in 2010, including their last six home contests against top-25 competition.

Since Oats arrived in 2019-20, Alabama (16-6, 8-1) is 6-3 in games against its in-state rival. The Crimson Tide defeated the Tigers, 77-69, in their last meeting on the Plains, and Alabama hasn’t won back-to-back games at Neville in more than a decade (since 2012). 

Asked about AU’s home advantage, Oats noted the two team’s court setups aren’t the same.

“In Coleman (Coliseum), our first row is way off the floor. You go to Auburn, and they’re a lot more like Duke where the students are right on the floor,” Oats said. “I think it’s a great environment. I think it’s what makes college basketball college basketball.

“The student section, they’re rowdy. They get after it. They’re loud, and they’re right on top of you. It’s hard to hear yourself even think. It’s hard to get play calls called. It’s hard for players to communicate on defense. It’s loud. 

“It’s great. I love it. It reminds me a lot of high school gyms, just with a lot more people in there. You can kind of pack 2,000 people in a high school gym and get a similar setting. Now, you pack whatever they seat, 8,9, 10,000 or whatever it is, that place gets loud.”

Wednesday’s Iron Bowl of Basketball will feature a pair of ranked rivals facing off for the second time this season as both in-state programs have improved under their current head coaches. In his fifth year in Tuscaloosa, Oats relishes the chance to coach in these matchups.

“These big games, to me, they’re fun,” Oat said. “I like going into an environment like that. Some of it takes me back to my days at Romulus when I was a high school coach and you get those big rivalry games. Romulus-Belleville, when I first got there and they’re sellouts. They’ve got to lock the doors and hundreds of people can’t get in. Guys are sneaking in through side doors.

“Shoot, this is fun. You get to compete here. You get to do it in a packed-out gym in front of a national audience.”

Four of the last five Alabama-Auburn basketball games have been decided by single digits, and Oats expects this to be another difficult battle. The Tide was victorious on its home floor earlier this season, and its new players experienced their first taste of the rivalry, which was significant, their head coach said. But playing at Neville Arena will be a different animal.

“You can tell these guys what the intensity level is going to look like. You don’t really know what it’s about until you experience it,” Oats said. “Auburn has got a few more guys back that have played in these games before. It seems like (Dylan) Cardwell has been here every year I’ve been here. He’s a really good player. (Johni) Broome has been there. K.D. Johnson has been there a while. They’ve got some guys that have been in these games and understand it.

“I think it was big for Grant (Nelson). It was big for Aaron (Estrada). It was big for (Latrell) Wrightsell. All the freshmen, obviously. Yeah, they have a little bit better idea. They don’t know quite what it’s like to go into Auburn’s gym, but they have an idea of what the intensity level in this game looks like.”

Wednesday night’s rivalry game is scheduled to tip off at 6 p.m. CT and air live on ESPN2.

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