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Who’s No. 1? Saturday’s Iron Bowl of Basketball set to be insane
By David Wasson
Published:
Let’s make one point abundantly clear from the very start: The Iron Bowl is all about football. It always has been and always will be.
With that said, Saturday’s scheduled 40 minutes of intercollegiate basketball competition inside Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa could arguably be the most impactful single game of the 2024-25 season.
It’s Alabama vs. Auburn. No. 1 vs., well, No. 1.
The Iron Bowl of basketball.
Yes, Crimson Tide vs. Tigers will be the epicenter of college basketball when the teams tip off at 4 pm ET Saturday. Inexplicably, it will be only the 6th time in history that teams ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the AP poll from the same state play each other – joining Cincinnati-Ohio State twice (1961 and 1962), UNC-Duke twice (1994 and 1998) and Tennessee-Memphis in 2008.
And because it is classically Alabama vs. Auburn, the nation can’t even agree on which one is actually No. 1. The AP writers’ poll has the Tigers at No. 1 despite losing to Florida last weekend and the Crimson Tide at No. 2. The USA Today coaches’ poll has it reversed, with Alabama at No. 1 and Auburn at No. 2.
Want more examples that this iteration of the IBOB will truly be nuts? Ticket prices for Saturday’s game on the resale market are approaching Super Bowl levels. Want to sit behind the Alabama bench 20 rows up? Be prepared to shell out close to $2,800.
That might sound like abject insanity, but then again, we are talking about Alabama and Auburn. The two fan bases have come close to throwing hands over the annual “friendly” food drive prior to the Iron Bowl – yes, actual fights almost sparked among fans while contributing to charity.
On the football field, lest we forget, not only have documentaries and books been written about the Tide and Tigers but actual life has been extinguished over it all. Of course, we refer to the escapades of one Harvey Updyke, who Spike DF80’ed the revered Toomer’s Oaks after the “Camback” victory by Auburn over Alabama back in 2010.
The annual Tide-Tigers basketball rivalry also serves as a callback to the football rivalry – with the losing football team’s student government having to award the winning team’s student leaders the Foy-ODK Sportsmanship Trophy. That means some poor Auburn student is going to have to sing “Yea Alabama” at midcourt at halftime Saturday surrounded by Crimson Tide fans.
Ooof.
Circling back to the hardwood, Saturday will be hot because both Alabama and Auburn are legitimate contenders to make a deep March Madness run. For the Crimson Tide, that means reaching a second straight Final Four and avenging their national semifinal loss to eventual national champion UConn. For the Tigers, they also want to go back to the Final Four – where they went for the first time in 2019 before losing to Virginia in the semifinals.
Depending on which side of the state you inquire, the programs are led by coaches who are revered by either the savior or the devil incarnate. Alabama’s Nate Oats brought a “blue-collar” mentality to the Tide program but faced intense criticism in 2023 about Darius Miles’ arrest for an off-campus slaying that tangentially involved Brandon Miller (who stayed on the Tide roster). Auburn’s Bruce Pearl is the school’s winningest coach and is in his 11th season, but he wasn’t exactly cooperative during an FBI investigation into an assistant coach in 2017 – which drew both internal and external scrutiny.
On the court, Auburn has an SEC Player of the Year candidate in senior forward Johni Broome – who leads the Tigers with 18.1 points, 10.9 rebounds, 3.3 assist and 2.7 blocks per game. Alabama is paced by senior guard Mark Sears, who was a star on the Final Four squad and delivers 17.8 points and 5.0 assists per outing.
They rank 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in SEC scoring — and are no strangers to lighting up each other. The rivals split 2 games last season — each team winning at home. In those games, Broome averaged 24.5 points, Sears 23.5.
Expect more fireworks Saturday, too, as the Crimson Tide lead the nation at 90.0 points per game and Auburn is 8th at 85.0 points per game. Defense? That’s a different story, as Auburn is 67th nationally allowing 67.7 points per game and Alabama checks in at a startling 323rd nationally by giving up 78.4 points per game.
In other words, bang the over. (FanDuel Sportsbook has the over/under set at 162.5.)
Although no trees are likely to be harmed Saturday and it is unlikely that fisticuffs will break out in the Coleman Coliseum stands, have no doubt that Round 1 of the IBOB (Round 2 is set for March 8 in Auburn) will be insane and certainly worthy of the Iron Bowl title.
Unless you represent the loser, that is. For them, Saturday will just be 40 minutes to forget while the winners claim superiority across all of Alabama and the rest of the 49 states.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
