When losing looked inevitable in the final minutes, many of the people who made Coleman Coliseum a cauldron of noise during the biggest college basketball game in Alabama state history started filing out in bulk. And with 47.2 seconds left, here came the jarringly loud insult to injury:
“It’s great! To be! An Auburn Tiger!”
A surprising number of visiting fans had infiltrated enemy territory, paying steep prices on the secondary market to do so, and they were loud and proud at the end. This Auburn sass triggered one Alabama Crimson Tide backer sitting in the section behind one of the baskets, seemingly more than the basketball itself. He raised his hands to his mouth and booed in response with a trembling fury.
Moments later, after the 94–85 Tigers triumph went final, another Alabama fan leaned over the railing to berate the officials as they left the court. At various points, fans signaled smartly for flopping calls and offensive players hooking defenders on spin moves.
It was almost like these were basketball schools. These were scenes comparable to what you’d see in Duke-North Carolina, Louisville-Kentucky or Indiana-Purdue.
“I’ve never heard Coleman this loud,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said.
During the second half, there had been a brief cessation in play after someone threw something on the court, prompting Alabama coach Nate Oats to take the P.A. microphone and chastise, “Whoever’s throwing stuff on the court, knock it off. We’re trying to win the basketball game.” Prior to tip-off, a very loud “F--- you Auburn” chant enveloped the arena.
Thus on this February Saturday in 2025, the Iron Bowl of basketball (IBOB, in the local shorthand) was very nearly as heated as the more famous chinstrap version of the rivalry. The state of Alabama is arguably the nation’s capital of college football—not just all the winning, but the pervasive interest. The Birmingham TV market annually draws the highest audience shares in America for college football.
The Southeastern Conference motto, “It Just Means More,” has always been attached to gridiron—but here and now it is more appropriate for hoops.
Auburn and Alabama were ranked Nos. 1 and 2 Saturday—the Tigers on top in the AP poll, the Tide with the coaches. It was the first time in SEC history that two of its men’s basketball teams played in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 game, and it’s something that’s never happened in the football Iron Bowl—closest they’ve come was No. 1 Alabama against No. 4 Auburn in 2013, a fairly historic game known for the kick six.
“We acted like we were the No. 1 team,” Pearl said afterward on ESPN. “We prepared like we were the No. 1 team. And we are the No. 1 team in the country.”
Big as it was, this game is merely the headwaters of the SEC’s flooding of hoops world with unprecedented power. Earlier Saturday, the NCAA men’s basketball selection committee unveiled a top 16 one month ahead of Selection Sunday that might as well have been sponsored by Waffle House: In addition to Auburn and Alabama, the Florida Gators were on the No. 1 seed line. The Tennessee Volunteers and Texas A&M Aggies were No. 2 seeds. The Kentucky Wildcats earned a No. 3 seed.
Downstream from there, the league’s strength keeps flowing. The most recent Sports Illustrated Bracket Watch has 12 SEC teams in the field of 68, with two more among the first four out. (The record for most bids from a single league is 11 from the Big East in 2011.)
A dozen or more teams getting in the Big Dance would mean excusing a lot of league losses, but the SEC did the work in November and December to earn the credibility. The Georgia Bulldogs are 4–9 in SEC play, but beat the Big East leader St. John’s Red Storm on a neutral floor. The Arkansas Razorbacks are 4–8 but beat the Big Ten leader Michigan Wolverines on a neutral court. The Oklahoma Sooners are 3–9 but beat Michigan, the Big 12 second-place Arizona Wildcats and the ACC third-place Louisville Cardinals. The South Carolina Gamecocks, winless in league play and in last place, beat the ACC second-place Clemson Tigers and are 3–0 against that conference.
To sum up this murderous league, let’s go to Tennessee coach Rick Barnes, who has worked in the Big East, ACC and Big 12 as well: “It’s the best league in the country, maybe ever. I mean it’s ridiculous, to be honest with you.”
How we arrived at this point, where a league that for decades consisted of Kentucky and apathy, is a matter of commitment and financial wherewithal. They decided to care.
Go back to 2013, when only three men’s teams from the conference made the NCAA tournament. The league had just won seven straight football national championships, which gave everyone an invitation to not care about the plight of hoops, but they began digging out shortly thereafter.
Better coaching hires led the way. In a cultural fit for the SEC, they didn’t go out and get a bunch of choir boys.
Pearl was hired at Auburn while still serving a three-year NCAA show-cause penalty for lying about violations to investigators while he was the coach at Tennessee. Oats had a player charged with murder in 2023 and refused to sideline other players who were at the scene—most notably star Brandon Miller. The Ole Miss Rebels and Mississippi State Bulldogs hired coaches Chris Beard and Chris Jans, respectively, who had previously lost jobs for problematic interactions with women. Florida coach Todd Golden navigated a very public and awkward Title IX investigation which last month failed to find that he committed any violations.
Reputations aside, the wins have followed. Pearl took Auburn to its first Final Four in 2019. Oats took Alabama to its first Final Four last year. Ole Miss and Mississippi State are both ranked. The current Florida team is the school’s best since Billy Donovan was there.
Armed with huge media-rights revenue, the SEC schools have committed financially to their coaches—and their players. The NIL era hasn’t solely been a football feast; SEC schools have paid their basketball players well also.
If there is one consistent thread through the league’s top teams this season, it’s been an ability to retain veteran stars. Auburn has gotten a third season out of former Morehead State Eagles big man Johni Broome, who might be the second-best player in the nation. Alabama is in Year 3 with Ohio Bobcats transfer Mark Sears and Year 2 with North Dakota State Bison transfer Grant Nelson. Florida has former Iona Gaels guard Walter Clayton Jr. for a second year. Texas A&M has guard Wade Taylor IV for a fourth year, as does Tennessee with Zakai Zeigler.
Plugging those stars into an entertaining style of play has made the SEC must-watch TV this season. The games are fast and fun, the teams are largely athletic and unencumbered by over-coaching.
According to KenPom’s numbers, four of the five most efficient offensive teams in the nation are in the SEC: Auburn is first, Alabama second, Florida third and Kentucky fifth. Alabama also plays at the fastest offensive tempo of any power-conference team, while leading the nation in scoring. Threes fly and players run the court.
(That doesn’t mean nobody is guarding in the league. Tennessee is the top defensive team in the country according to KenPom, with Texas A&M sixth and Florida eighth.)
The ultimate validation of the SEC’s strength, as always, comes in the NCAA tournament. There is still some proving to do there, where the league’s last title came in 2012 (Kentucky) and the only school outside of Lexington to win a title in the last 30 years is Florida (‘06 and ’07). Tennessee and Missouri have never made a Final Four; Texas A&M has never made a regional final; Kentucky is on an ignominious run of early NCAA flameouts.
That pressure will ratchet up next month. For fans that aren’t hard-wired to love basketball, that style of play—plus winning—is the added incentive to tune in. Kentucky isn’t the only program loving the roundball right now.
Kevin Scarbinsky has covered college basketball in the state of Alabama for 40 years. He remembers times on the Auburn beat—when the Tigers were really good, with Charles Barkley and Chuck Person—and few people cared. That included the athletic director, who was also the football coach, Pat Dye.
One day after football practice, Scarbinsky says he asked Dye if he were going to the game that night. “What game?” Dye responded. The basketball team was playing its season opener. Another time, an Auburn exhibition basketball game had to be moved 30 miles east and across state lines, to Columbus, Ga., because an REM concert had been booked in the basketball arena without looking at the hoops schedule.
“They averaged a little over 7,000 fans a game,” Scarbinsky says. “Now you can’t get a ticket there.”
Scarbinsky recalled an Auburn-Alabama game 12 years ago: The Tigers beat the Tide, 49–37, a dismal affair with a pair of coaches who would end up fired, Tony Barbee and Anthony Grant. The teams shot a combined 4-for-28 from three-point range.
Saturday, they combined to make 17 threes and score 93 more points than that offensive nadir, roaring up and down the court and playing above the rim. Auburn showed it was ready for the moment, jumping to a 9–0 lead and never trailing. Time after time, Alabama mounted rallies and engaged the Coleman crowd, and every time Auburn answered—until their fans got the last word.
“We knew they’re a good team,” Broome said. “We knew they were No. 2 for a reason. It shows how good the SEC is. I’m going to enjoy this for a little bit but then we’ve got to move on.”
This is the irrefutable truth. Even winning the biggest basketball game in Alabama state history offers no time for an extended exhale. Neither does losing.
The Tide’s closing schedule is ridiculous: after No. 1 Auburn, the final six games are at No. 21 Missouri, which is undefeated at home; home against No. 15 Kentucky; home against No. 22 Mississippi State; at No. 5 Tennessee; home against No. 3 Florida; and at No. 1 Auburn.
“The last stretch is probably the hardest in the country,” Oats said. “We’ve got to bring it.”
There is no choice in the SEC in 2025. Bring it, or be brought to your knees.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Auburn-Alabama Matchup Showcases SEC As More Than a Football Conference.
