Three weeks ago, Auburn went to Coleman Coliseum for a heavily anticipated matchup with Alabama. The Tigers escaped Tuscaloosa with an 81-77 victory. On Tuesday night, the Tigers will host the Crimson Tide in a rematch of the Jan. 11 thriller.
“Alabama and Kentucky are the two best teams that we’ve played so far,” said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl.
No. 1 Auburn (20-1, 8-0 SEC) comes into Tuesday night’s game riding a 17-game win streak. The Tigers, who survived at Missouri last Tuesday before routing Oklahoma on Saturday, enter their second week as the top team in the Associated Press Poll.
“We won two games last week, and so you just kind of survive and advance,” Pearl said. “We’re pleased to have survived Missouri on the road. We played very well against Oklahoma. That was one of our most efficient offensive days.”
Alabama (14-7, 4-4 SEC), the first team out of this week’s AP Poll, is coming off an unusual week. After losing to Georgia, the last-place team in the SEC, on Tuesday, the Crimson Tide defeated then-No. 4 Baylor at home.
The week is symbolic of Alabama’s unpredictable season, which has seen victories over Gonzaga, Houston, LSU, and Baylor, but has also had losses to the likes of Iona, Memphis, Davidson, Missouri, and Georgia.
“They’re capable of beating the best teams on their schedule,” Pearl said. “They dominated Gonzaga and they did a great job against Baylor. There's a reason they were preseason picked first or second in our league.”
The Tigers will look for Jabari Smith Jr. to repeat his performance from three weeks ago against Alabama. Auburn’s star freshman had a career-high 25 points to go along with seven rebounds and four blocks in Tuscaloosa.
Auburn also hopes for Wendell Green Jr., who was just named a nominee for the Bob Cousy Award, to step up as he did in January’s rivalry matchup. Green Jr. had 19 points, including three 3-pointers, in 31 minutes at Coleman Coliseum.
“Looking back, Jabari Smith was just incredible at Coleman Coliseum,” Pearl said. “Wendell Green had some really special moments and some really big plays.”
Alabama’s scoring offense has not been an issue this season. The Crimson Tide ranks 11th nationally in scoring offense with an average of 81.4 points per game. The Crimson Tide make over nine 3-pointers per game, with guard Jaden Shackelford leading the SEC with 64 made threes this season.
In addition to Alabama’s many made threes, the Crimson Tide is also good at drawing fouls. Alabama ranks 16th nationally in free throws attempted, having attempted 445 this season. In the first clash between Auburn and Alabama, the Crimson Tide shot 29 free throws, making 24 of them.
“Alabama’s great,” Pearl said. “They’re tremendous offensively, a very difficult cover. Coach Oats does a great job of putting those guys in space and they’re hard to stay in front of. Their spacing is really good. They shoot inside threes, outside threes and free throws. It’s going to be a great challenge for us.”
Alabama is led by guards Jahvon Quinerly and Jaden Shackelford. Both are among the SEC’s top 10 scorers, with Shackelford ranking fourth with 17.2 points per game and Quinerly ranking ninth with 14.6 points per game. Alabama is the only SEC school to have two scorers rank in the top 10 in the conference.
“We were very fortunate in our game that Quinerly and Shackelford didn’t necessarily go off,” Pearl said. “Those guys are two of the best guards in the country.”
Three weeks ago, Alabama took 31 3-pointers against the Tigers, making just seven. If Auburn can force Alabama to take similar shots, the Tigers have a great chance for success. Alabama has made 191 3-pointers, which ranks 31st in the nation. Those 191 makes, however, came on 616 attempts. Alabama's 31% hit rate from behind the arc ranks 293rd in the nation.
Alabama also has had great success getting offensive rebounds. The Crimson Tide have grabbed 287 offensive rebounds this season, an average of just under 13.7 per game. Against Auburn earlier this season, the Crimson Tide had 11 offensive boards but were only able to score eight second-chance points.
“What they don’t make, they’re 13th in the nation in offensive rebounding efficiency. tap backs, putbacks, offensive rebounds, long shots, long rebounds, 50-50 balls," Pearl said. "They’re fast, they’re quick and so winning the battle of the boards is going to be really important."
The defense has been a problem for the Crimson Tide. Alabama allows 74.9 points per game, ranking 309th in the NCAA. In the Crimson Tide’s seven losses, they have allowed an average of 82.3 points.
The Tigers will look to take advantage of Alabama’s defensive struggles on the interior by taking it to the basket and drawing fouls. Auburn made over 56% of the 2-pointers it took in Tuscaloosa, compared to just 27% of its threes.
Alabama struggles to get stops without fouling. The Crimson Tide are called for an average of 18 fouls per game. The Tigers, who have attempted 66 free throws over the past three games, will attempt to continue that trend. Auburn attempted 22 free throws in its first meeting with Alabama.
Tip-off between the Tigers and Crimson Tide from Auburn Arena, where the Tigers are 11-0 this season, will be at 8 p.m. CST. The game will be nationally televised by ESPN.
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Matthew is a senior from Huntsville, Alabama, majoring in journalism. He started with The Plainsman in fall 2021.
Twitter: @mattwallaceAU
