Under the arena lights where he’d played for four years and the building where he walked across the state as a college graduate, Allen Flanigan returned to Auburn wearing red.

He was the first Ole Miss player out of the visiting team’s tunnel right beside the student section. He wore Ole Miss powder blue sneakers on his old navy blue and orange floor and was met immediately with a loud chorus of boos from the packed-in student section around him.

They knew who was back.

Allen Flanigan played at Auburn from 2019-2023. His dad Wes was an assistant coach at Auburn from 2018-2023 and a 1,000-point scorer during his own days as an Auburn played in the 1990s. Both left after the 2023 season as Chris Beard was named the new head coach at Ole Miss. He hired Wes Flanigan to join his staff — Flanigan had previously been a Beard assistant before coming to Auburn — and Allen Flanigan followed his father.

They both returned to Neville Arena on Saturday with No. 22 Ole Miss (15-3, 2-3) and left with a decisive 82-59 loss to No. 13 Auburn (16-2, 5-0).

“The Flanigan family is a lot of things, nervous isn’t one of them,” Beard said after the game. “Allen Flanigan was not nervous. But I understand the question; I’ve been part of a couple of these in my career. Obviously, there’s a lot of emotion.”

Students jeered him for every shot in warm-ups he missed. The one well wishes he got were hugs from scouting director Ian Borders and graduate assistant Bryant Smith. Maybe in some way, it was all some extent of normal. He warmed up in his same routine in the same arena where the Jungle had once cheered for him as one of their own. Just warming up on the other basket and sitting on the other bench.

Wes Flanigan stood on the left side of the “U” in Auburn’s center-court logo. He watched his son and the rest of the Rebels warmups. He chatted with and hugged Auburn assistant coach Chad Prewett.

But he looked around frequently. He looked up at the scoreboard. Looked up at the crowd. He also wore wearing red as he tried to take in the scene and acknowledge he’d now become the villain of the arena he too had come to call home.

Though, the true introduction for the Auburn graduates turned enemies would come during the starting lineup announcements. Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl gave Allen Flanigan a hug as they both took the floor, but when the lights went down and Allen Flanigan was called out as a starter, the students responded with an extra loud yell of “Sucks!” after his name, and several boos as he shook the hands of the officials.

Yet those boos were mixed with smatterings of applause. For every fan to make him public enemy number one, there were as many who saluted the player as Pearl had advocated Friday: as an Auburn graduate.

And then, it was just basketball. Early on, students booed Flanigan every time he touched the ball. With so much experience with him in their own practices, Auburn had laid out a meticulous game plan to stop him.

He finished the game with 10 points on 3-10 shooting, far below his season averages.

“Me and Al were the same class,” graduate guard Lior Berman said. “We had our time at Auburn. So we’ve had some battles in practice. But Al’s a great player and It was pretty cool matching up against him.”

It’s fitting the man playing among the most notable roles in that defensive effort came from Berman. Berman had guarded Flanigan in practice for four years.

And in practice this week leading up to the game, Berman played the role of Flanigan on the scout team.

“Yeah, so in practices, I’m actually playing on scout and playing the other team — which kind of helps me, because I get to run their plays in practice,” Berman said. “During the game, I can see if their coach calls something, I can go, ‘Oh, I ran this.’ I know what spot to be in. Yeah, just knowing what spot to be in and knowing what everyone’s doing, it’s just really helped me in the game to be in the right spot and be able to make plays.”

Berman forced three consecutive Flanigan misses and came back down on the other end to deliver a 3-pointer giving Auburn a lead a double-digit lead it would not relinquish.

“It was more than his time to come out and Chad (Baker-Marzara) was due to come in,” Pearl said. “Chad Baker says to (assistant coach Ira Bowman), ‘Leave him in there. Lior is playing so great.’”

Allen Flanigan was near the front of the line of Ole Miss players in handshakes when the result which was hardly ever in doubt became final. He walked down the line and said goodbye to his former teammates until he got down to forward Chris Moore.

The two are close, having played against each other as Arkansas natives. Moore said Friday that the two have kept in contact since the Flanigan’s left. And while the game may be chippy, there wasn’t bad blood.

So Moore gave his friend and former teammate a hug. He playfully shoved Flanigan’s chest, and gave him a hype-man talk seemingly to cheer him up after the loss.

To his former teammates, Allen Flanigan didn’t appear as any sort of bad guy.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]