When Auburn’s men’s basketball team walked into Neville Arena for practice Monday afternoon, they did so following a day off on Sunday, which is commonplace when the Tigers play on Saturday and have an approaching game on Wednesday.

What wasn’t commonplace about the Monday’s practice, however, was its intensity as No. 8 Auburn prepares for its trip to Tuscaloosa, where they’ll meet with Alabama Wednesday night at Coleman Coliseum in the “Iron Bowl of Basketball.”

Auburn senior center Dylan Cardwell called Alabama “one of the fastest teams” the Tigers will see all year. Such was the case last season, he added.

“We struggled with that in transition,” Cardwell said Tuesday.

So Monday’s practice was all about getting the Tigers prepared for the challenge of the Crimson Tide’s athleticism and avoiding the results of last season, when Auburn fell to Alabama twice — including a 17-point collapse the last time the Tigers visited Alabama’s Coleman Coliseum.

Monday got underway with an hour-long conversation before film study “just to make sure we’re kinda locked in to what we need to do in order to handle business,” Cardwell says.

And the intensity followed the Tigers onto the practice floor.

“Yesterday was probably one of our hardest practices since June,” said Auburn senior forward Jaylin Williams. “We really needed it, as much as we didn’t want to go out there and do all that.”

It started with Auburn’s scout team — more specifically Jalen Harper, the younger brother of former Auburn player Jared Harper.

More times than not, Harper is asked to mirror the play style of the quickest player on the opposing roster.

“Whoever the other team’s fastest player is, it’s going to be Jalen Harper most likely,” Williams said. “He’s lightning fast.”

The means this week, as Auburn preps for Alabama, Harper is tasked with mimicking the play style of Alabama senior guard Mark Sears, who leads the Crimson Tide’s scoring efforts with 19.8 points per games and received high praise from Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl, who admits he maybe should’ve tried recruiting the Muscle Shoals native a bit harder out of high school.

“He’s a great player,” Pearl said of Sears. “Can do it from 2. Can do it from 3. Incredible competitor. Unbelievably hard worker.”

So in Monday’s practice, Auburn asked Harper to try and “do it from 2″ and “do it from 3.”

In one of Auburn’s practice sets Monday, the Tigers’ rotational players are asked to go through their offensive play and then quickly get back down the floor to defend the Harper-led scout team.

The first time through didn’t go well, Williams admits.

“He’s gone,” Williams said of Harper. “He got a layup the first play. BP is already mad and practice just started.”

Nonetheless, Pearl said his team responded well to Monday’s challenge as practice continued to unfold.

“Scout team did well,” Pearl said Tuesday. “Kids responded pretty well.”

However, despite Harper and Auburn’s scout team as a whole receiving no shortage of praise for their behind-the-scenes efforts this season, Pearl acknowledges the practice setting pales in comparison to what the Tigers will experience come tip off Wednesday night.

“There’s just no way of duplicating the speed and the pace with which Alabama plays. There’s no way to duplicate the quality of – let’s just say their back court – and the speed, quickness and athleticism and ability to make shots and plays,” Pearl said. “And then the front line, they can really stretch you. They can put five guys on the floor who can all shoot the three ball. That’s the most athletic team we’ve played against so far.”

With the challenge that lies ahead, Monday’s practice was fitting.

But so was the message that came with it.

“The coaches really worked us up to make us realize, ‘OK, we have a chance to do something special if we win these two games this week.’,” Williams said. “I won’t say it’s a guaranteed championship in the regular season, but it’s going to help a lot if we finish these two games out with a dub. The coaches are trying to get that message out to us.”