Alabama guard Charvez Davis (24) and the Crimson Tide beat 12th-ranked Kentucky on Wednesday. The Tide takes on Auburn today.
TUSCALOOSA | The University of Alabama men’s basketball team knows it is being cast into the third ring of a three-ring circus this afternoon. The question is whether UA can play basketball well enough to avoid playing its designated role.
Auburn University will host a celebration of its BCS football champion a few hours before today’s game. At halftime, AU will receive the ODK Trophy given to the winner of the annual Alabama-Auburn game. The Tiger faithful would love to complete the day with an upset of SEC West-leading Alabama at the Auburn Arena, likely to be full for the first time.
“I know they’ve got something going on down there, some kind of thing with Cam Newton or something,” said Crimson Tide guard Senario Hillman. “I am not too worried about it. We have to worry about our game. This is a big game, just as big as Kentucky.”
Alabama head coach Anthony Grant added that it was “what happens between the lines” rather than any ceremony surrounding the game.
“We’ll be in the locker room at halftime,” Grant said. “We won’t see any of that.”
What he does expect to see is an inspired, tenacious Auburn basketball team, one more dangerous than its 0-4 SEC record (7-11 overall) would indicate.
“When I look at Auburn, I am impressed with the way they defend, the different (defensive) looks they put on the floor,” Grant said. “They’ve got a group of guys who are really hungry and have really bought in.
“They are trying to build a program,” Grant said. “That takes time, but what impresses me most is that they play hard.”
Tiger coach Tony Barbee had similarly complimentary comments about Alabama’s defense.
“They make everything hard,” Barbee said Friday in comments to the Associated Press. “They challenge everything you do. They challenge every shot. You never get an uncontested shot. Every bounce is contested. Every pass is challenged. Everything you do on the offensive end of the floor, they challenge it. So it makes it hard because it grinds on you over the course of a 40-minute game.”
Auburn is last in the SEC in scoring, averaging just 53 points per game in league play. Sophomore guard Earnest Ross is the team’s leading scorer at 12.3 points per game.
Alabama won the most recent meeting last March in Tuscaloosa, but is still stinging from a 58-57 loss in its last trip to Auburn, a game that slipped away from UA in the closing seconds.
“We felt like we had that game and they took it from us,” said Alabama forward JaMychal Green. “They would like to do the same thing this year.
“They are a streaky team, but when they are on, they are on. They beat Florida State, so that tells you they can be a good team when they shoot 3-pointers and get out in transition.”
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