Alabama News

General

Goodman: Nate Oats takes shots at best player, but will it work?

This is an opinion column.

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Alabama’s coach never holds back.

No matter what, Nate Oats is going to tell you exactly what’s on his mind. For that, reporters and fans love him. For his players, though, sometimes Oats’ honesty might go a little too far.

Take Saturday for example.

Auburn 94, Alabama 85 was the type of game that people remember for a long time. It was the first regular-season matchup in the history of the SEC between teams ranked one and two in the AP Poll. No.1 Auburn outworked No.2 Alabama at Coleman Coliseum.

Auburn gets the flowers this time, but for both teams it was historic stuff.

“That’s a Final Four-good team,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said of his school’s principal rival.

Most analysts tend to agree, but, according to Oats, there are some major problems with the Crimson Tide’s leadership going into the final stretch of the season.

Oats is one of the best coaches in the country, so I’m going to assume that he knows what he’s doing, but publicly dogging star point guard Mark Sears on college basketball’s biggest stage of the season seemed like a high-stakes gamble that could backfire.

Did Alabama peak too soon? We’re about to find out.

Alabama plays six ranked teams to finish the regular season. For Oats, the answer to that riddle is clear.

“We got to have better leadership this year,” Oats said. “We’ll see what type of maturity and leadership we have.”

It was a direct shot at Sears, who Oats infamously benched earlier this season in a game against LSU.

Sears had another off night, shooting 4 of 17 from the field against Auburn. He was 2 of 11 from 3-point range. But was he the reason Alabama lost to Auburn? That feels like a stretch. His primary defender was Auburn’s Denver Jones, and Jones is no slouch. Pearl praised Jones afterwards as one of the best defenders in the country.

“How do you stay in front of Mark Sears?” Pearl said. “Nobody can and Denver Jones did. He needs to be on the Naismith All-Defensive Team.”

Sears is a proven veteran with Final Four experience. By any measure, he’s an excellent college basketball player and one of the best to ever play at Alabama. Oats is taking an unnecessary risk throwing post-game haymakers at his best player’s confidence.

“We’ve got to play hard when shots aren’t dropping,” Oats said. “It’s a sign of high character guys.”

Ouch.

But Oats wasn’t done.

How was Sears’ finishing at the rim?

“Not good,” Oats said. “Too much ISO…Too many bad shots.”

Auburn had just as many blocks as Alabama had assists in the first half (two). The second half wasn’t much better despite the Crimson Tide’s big run. In the end, Alabama finished with eight assists, a season low.

“The ball just wasn’t moving for the entire team,” Oats said.

It was all a motivational ploy aimed at Alabama’s senior guard. Will it work? Oats even suggested that maybe he should have benched Sears in the second half before acknowledging that the biggest game of the season probably wasn’t the best opportunity for a teaching moment. Oats benched Sears in the second half against lowly LSU. Against Auburn, Alabama had trouble keeping up with Auburn’s perimeter shooters. That wasn’t all on Sears, though. Auburn bigs Johni Broome and Chaney Johnson went 4 of 8 from distance.

“They’ve proven to be the best team in the country,” Oats said of Auburn. “We were not today.”

Alabama has a chance at redemption beginning with a game on Wednesday against No.21 Missouri. From there, Alabama finishes the season with games against No.15 Kentucky, No.22 Mississippi State, No.5 Florida, No.3 Tennessee and No.1 Auburn.

In football, the Iron Bowl at the end of the season determines everything. In basketball, with the way these two teams are playing, it’s not so simple.

Auburn 94, Alabama 85 on Saturday in Tuscaloosa was just an opening course. Hopefully the two best basketball teams in the country will play three more times this season.

If you’re counting, that’s once in Auburn at the end of the regular season, once in the championship game of the SEC tournament and then once again for a national championship in the NCAA Tournament.

I mean, if we’re going to take this Heart of Dixie basketball fantasy to the place of our wildest dreams, then we might as well go all the way to the edge and beyond.

The beginning was bitter for Bama, but things can turn quickly. Sears is the key to Alabama reaching the Final Four. Good thing for Oats, his senior point guard has already done it once.

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Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the book “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s Ultimate Team.”

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General

How Auburn basketball’s guards accepted the challenge and dominated Alabama

Auburn basketball was far from perfect in its 94-85 victory over Alabama Saturday. But it was just enough to remain atop the SEC ladder.

The Tigers never trailed in the contest, leading by as many as 14 points inside Coleman Coliseum. Alabama fought back, tying the game twice. However, Auburn kept its composure, running the game at its own pace.

“Look, we like to play fast… and we like to shoot the three-ball, too. But I didn’t want a track meet,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said postgame. “I thought our guys did a good job of just slowing it down.”

Auburn knew entering Saturday’s contest that the backcourt matchup would play a major factor in the game’s final decision.

In a first half that was mainly dominated by Johni Broome and Chaney Johnson, the late heroics of Denver Jones and Tahaad Pettiford helped secure the Tigers seventh road conference win.

The Tigers duo combined for 25 second half points. Jones drained three 3-pointers to start the second half, taking every shot he saw suitable.

“Honestly, I was just coming out aggressively. If I had an open look, I was taking it. I was just trusting myself and trusting my teammates,” Jones said. “I know my teammates believe in me. Then it’s just taking that shot, honestly.”

Pettiford’s only made 3-pointer came in the biggest moment of the game. Ater an Alabama run leading to a tie game; Pettiford silenced the raucous crowd giving the Tigers the lead in the final minutes.

His 13 total points were huge as he continues to shine on the biggest stages of collegiate hoops.

“Man, that just goes to show you how great of a player he is. Tahaad, he’s young, but he’s got a lot of things that you just can’t teach — and that’s one of them,” Jones said when talking about Pettiford. “He comes down, and he answers their 6-0 run. He comes down and sparks our run. That just goes to show you how important he is.”

As good as the Tigers guards were on offense, they were just as impressive on defense. Alabama only shot 19% from beyond the arc and held Mark Sears to just two made 3-pointers.

Sears and former Auburn guard Aden Holloway shot a combined 3-of-15 from 3-point land. Pearl raved about his team’s effort on defense, calling Denver Jones one of the best defensive players in college basketball.

“I don’t know when the media’s going to talk about him being one of the best defensive players in college basketball,” Pearl said. I mean, [Mark Sears] is one of the best players in college basketball. Period. And he did a great job on Mark. Made his catches tough, stayed down, stayed between him and the basket. You know, how do you stay in front of [Mark Sears]? Hardly anybody can. [Denver Jones] did, and nobody talked about it. He doesn’t have enough blocked shots, or he doesn’t have enough steals. He’s one of the best defensive players in college basketball. He needs to be on the Naismith All-Defensive team.”

With the Tigers hosting Arkansas in their next contest, that will present another elite backcourt matchup with the Razorbacks DJ Wagner and Johnell Davis.

As of now, Auburn’s backcourt showed why they deserve to be mentioned with the best.

If they are already not the best.

Jerry Humphrey III covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Jerryhump3 or email him at [email protected].

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Everything Bruce Pearl said after Auburn basketball’s win over No. 2 Alabama

Auburn men’s basketball scored a huge win Saturday, beating No. 2 Alabama 94-85 in Tuscaloosa, improving to 23-2 on the season and solidifying its No. 1 ranking.

Here’s everything head coach Bruce Pearl had to say after the win:

Opening statement

“I think the thing I’m proudest of is that all eyes of college basketball were on the state of Alabama and the SEC. What this conference has done in men’s basketball is historic. And, you know, you never know whether or not a game can live up to the hype.

We were very prepared. Coaches did a great job with the game plan. The kids executed early. You’ve got to play well early if you’re going to win on the road. We played well early. As you’d expected, Alabama came storming back, and the place was — I’ve never heard Coleman this loud.

But it was a really clean game. It was a really clean game, which I was pleased about. Nate talked to his team about that, because that’s how the No. 1 teams in the country should act. That’s how they should compete. That’s how they should play. I was really pleased with that.

I’m happy, because we have such balance. I’m happy for the kids from Alabama. This rivalry matters in the state, in every family. Every family’s divided. Every family’s got Auburn fans, and they’ve got Alabama fans. For Chaney and Denver, it was really big. And they both played really well. But I think the balance of our team was really significant.

Last thing I’m just going to say is this: Denver Jones was sitting right here. I would appreciate, you folks in the media — I don’t know when the media’s going to talk about him being one of the best defensive players in college basketball. And we’ll do the research for you. If you look at his matchups, night in and night out. I mean, Mark Sears is one of the best players in college basketball. Period. And, not that he did it by himself, but he did a great job on Mark. Made his catches tough, stayed down, stayed between him and the basket. You know, how do you stay in front of Mark Sears? Hardly anybody can. Denver Jones did, and nobody talked about it. He doesn’t have enough blocked shots, or he doesn’t have enough steals. He’s one of the best defensive players in college basketball. He needs to be on the Naismith All-Defensive team

On Auburn’s offensive success

“Alabama played drop and not hit back screens, and you’ve just got to bang shots behind them, and I thought our guys did. I thought our bigs set good screens. I thought we mixed up enough perimeter stuff where we could get clean looks with letting Chaney and Johni kind of go down in there and do some work. We had a nice balance of some inside out stuff.

I thought Denver played great tonight. The thing we’ve done with Denver again is just like — Denver go score. You’re a two-guard playing point, he’s doing an amazing job, now go score, that’s what you do. And as a result, the passes will become easy. Chad Baker-Mazara is a playmaker. He can score. He can shoot. He might look to make some tough passes, and he had a great assist-to-turnover ratio tonight.

On withstanding Alabama’s runs

We made eight of our last 10 field goals, that’s how you close out a game. I thought that Tahaad hit a big one in transition, wasn’t afraid to take that shot, kind of blew the lead up a little bit. Chad Baker-Mazara — we didn’t have much offense running, we were trying to get the ball inside, and I don’t know if the score was tied, it was pretty close — bang, he hits a three-ball just with some experience.

What our locker room feels good about right now is so many guys contributed. Chris Moore played seven minutes, was plus 17 — started for a banged-up Chad Baker-Mazara. So, when we talk about that lineup, and guys were all over Chris Moore. Everybody contributed. Dylan Cardwell fouls out and we lost one of our best defenders, we just didn’t panic. Late in the game, I am looking down and to say who — we got a couple guys fouled out… We managed.

On the runs to start both halves

I think what it does is it sends a message that we came here with the idea that we were going to try to win the game. We knew we’d have to play really well. We knew we’d have to bang shots. We knew we were going to get some clean looks. Every time you saw Miles Kelly or Denver coming off a screen — I’m sure they go, ‘Oh no.’ And I’m going, ‘Oh yeah.’ They’re open, they’re clean. They were great looks. You have to play well early on the road if you’re going to win, you have to win. Can’t give the home team any momentum.

On Chris Moore’s defensive impact

“He’s such a physical defender, he’s such a great teammate. He’s been in the program five years and the guys all love him. He’s one of the favorite guys in the locker room and he’s so unselfish. He got three open 3s and I want him to take those open shots, and he probably feels bad that he didn’t bang them. But again, that’s part of our chemistry, part of our culture.”

On potentially playing Alabama again

“Well, you know, you got one more time, I guess. That’s a Final Four good team. So, but there’s a long way to go. Just a long, long way to go. You look at our league with three number one’s, three teams on the one-line, a couple teams on the two-line.

Look for Texas A&M to jump in there like that in the Sweet Sixteen, and I don’t know. We just take them one at a time. We got Arkansas coming in on Wednesday. I am a big fan of making history and I do know that one-two’s are rare and we’ve got two road wins in the one-two matchup that I will cherish.”

On Pettiford and Baker-Mazara’s 3-pointers late

“You know, it’s interesting. I didn’t call timeout in that stretch, and there was nothing very intricate about either one of those buckets. The one that Chad Baker-Mazara shot was kind of midway late in the clock. I thought we did a good job — one of the things that we want to try to do is — look, we like to play fast. We don’t play as fast as Alabama, but we like to play fast. So, we had some breaks, and we scored 94 points. We like to play fast, and we like to shoot the 3-ball too.

But I didn’t want a track meet. So, there were times when I thought our guys did a good job of just running the offense. And we did a good job of just continuing to play through the inside. Neither one of those shots was anything brilliant offensively, Chad just pulls up, kind of with the clock running down. Nothing else is going on, makes a shot.

I think Tahaad’s, I think his was in transition and, you know, he was clean. And it’s one of those shots, ‘Well maybe you should run offense in that situation.’ Well, he was clean, he can make that shot, I thought that was a little bit of a dagger.”

On defending Alabama

“You just can’t leave them. You’ve got to make them put the ball down the floor, and we tried to do the best we could to be disciplined, stay on their shooters. They did a good job driving the ball to the basket, and I thought we did a pretty good job making them make tough 2s.”

On withstanding Alabama’s runs, again

“It says a lot about our resilience tonight, but we’ll see about Wednesday. I don’t know. I think there is something to the fact that they trust each other, they do. I thought we got fatigued in the second half, and did not guard with the same energy, multiple efforts. It hurt not having Dylan out there in the rotation, got a little thin. We managed.”

On Chaney Johnson’s performance

“There were two looks we put in that we thought we could get him an open shot. I think it said something to Chaney, like, ‘These are two looks for me to actually shoot it.’ He’ll get some shots on some inside-out, get a few things, but no. You’re going to bang a couple. And he knocked them down. I did the same thing with Johni, too. We got four 3s from those guys. Part of it was we dialed up a couple open shots.”

On Johni Broome playing through injury

“He sucked it up, he really did. He was tired early in the second half. You could tell he was dragging a little bit. I was worried we were going to run out of gas, especially with Dylan in foul trouble. But again, found a way, sucked it up, made history. Big win in here. But look, however many we’ve got left in the regular season, it’s just too early to talk about anything other than Arkansas on Wednesday.”

On Chad Baker-Mazara playing through injury

“Chad is so banged up, and I just wasn’t sure he was going to play tonight. He got hurt yesterday in practice. But he’s a gamer, and he’s got some toughness, and he’s got some real skill. He knows how to play and he’s such a great passer. He’s a dangerous player. I’ve got to go look at that. Obviously, we don’t want that extra whatever to happen, obviously they got tangled up. The time and score, that wasn’t timely.”

On getting looks for Johni Broome

We didn’t do anything too terribly fancy. We just gave him the ball, and they don’t double. They thought they could play him one-on-one, and they did a pretty good job on him. He missed nine shots, he made seven or eight. He had his double-double, and it was enough to get it done.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m

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3-point shooting was bad, but Alabama had a bigger problem against Auburn

To guard Chris Youngblood, the answer to the question was simple. That made the problem all the more infuriating.

No. 2 Alabama men’s basketball struggled to make layups all day against No. 1 Auburn. What should in theory be one of the easier and more efficient shots to make was anything but for one of the country’s top offenses. Alabama finished 14 of 30 at the rim in a 94-85 loss to the Tigers on Saturday at Coleman Coliseum.

The shooting from beyond the arc could have been much better. Alabama finished 5 of 26 from deep, a paltry 19%. But the Crimson Tide’s three-point problems could have been overcome if it had made its layups.

So, what could have been done differently at the rim?

“It might sound a little petty,” Youngblood said, “but make the layups.”

The comment wasn’t meant to be snippy or rude. Youngblood was right. Alabama’s problem wasn’t complex or some puzzle that can’t be solved. The Crimson Tide (21-4, 10-2 SEC) just struggled to finish on a day where it could ill-afford to squander prime opportunities.

“We missed a lot of reads,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said. “We’ve got to be better. We’ve got to move the ball better. We’ve got to be a little more unselfish moving forward.”

Mark Sears went 2-for-6 at the rim. Mouhamed Dioubate finished 4 of 9. Aden Holloway was 1 of 3. Grant Nelson was 5 of 10. That’s how Alabama charted each player on layups.

Auburn deserves some credit. The Tigers had the No. 17 defense in adjusted defensive efficiency entering the game, per KenPom. And that defense gave Alabama some problems. Especially near the rim.

“We didn’t make great rim reads, but they got us off the three-point line,” Oats said. “Pushed us in. Made big plays at the rim.”

Auburn blocked six shots. Johni Broome, a national player of the year candidate for the Tigers, tallied two of those. It was part of an overall defensive effort that limited the nation’s No. 2 offense in adjusted efficiency to 1.076 points per possession. That’s not near the number Alabama wants or of what it’s capable.

The 3-pointers, or lack thereof, are an easy issue at which to point for why Alabama lost to Auburn. But the issues making layups belong higher on the list of problems.

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.

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As Elon Musk, DOGE dive into NASA spending Katie Britt says Redstone Arsenal is critical

Elon Musk’s DOGE staff wasted no time since arriving at NASA this week, analyzing workforce data and, according to a top space agency official, pledging a deep-dive audit of spending and contracts.

But Musk’s work may also force a showdown with Republican legislators whose districts benefit from NASA, especially the $93 billion Artemis program aimed at putting American boots back on the moon.

Musk’s DOGE review at NASA is in its early stages and it’s not yet clear how deep or sweeping any changes will be. It’s a measure of this political moment that Musk, whose company SpaceX has billions of dollars of contracts with NASA, is now rooting through its books for waste.

See also: Katie Britt among GOP leaders speaking out over DOGE cuts

To critics including Musk, Artemis, which has been riddled with cost overruns and technical delays for years, is a powerful emblem of government inefficiency. DOGE’s slash-and-burn track record at other U.S. agencies and Musk’s criticism of Artemis are reasons NASA employees are bracing for change.

Here’s another: President Donald Trump has picked billionaire SpaceX investor and astronaut Jared Isaacman to run NASA. Isaacman has criticized cost overruns and technical delays with Artemis and the Boeing-built rocket underpinning it.

The growing speculation gripping Washington that an Artemis shake-up is coming is forcing Republicans to choose between their allegiance to the Trump administration and their support of a program that props up tens of thousands of home-state jobs — setting the stage for a major budget battle in Congress.

A number of GOP lawmakers are rallying around the program, warning that cutting Artemis would put the U.S. in a weaker position in its space race with China. Beijing plans on sending its astronauts to the moon for the first time by the end of the decade.

“The first thing we need to do is establish what’s in the best interest of the United States of America, and that is beating the Communist Party back to the lunar surface,” Texas Republican Brian Babin, chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, told a conference in Washington on Feb. 12.

“The only way that’s going to happen at any time soon is with Artemis,” he said.

A NASA spokesperson confirmed DOGE workers are at the agency and referred all further questions to DOGE. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“They are going to look — similarly to what they’ve done at other agencies — at our payments,” NASA’s acting administrator Janet Petro told reporters on Wednesday. Department of Government Efficiency personnel have already mapped NASA’s management and employee structure, including average age, tenure and salaries.

Launched by NASA during Trump’s first term, Artemis is expected to cost $93 billion by 2025 and has only flown a single mission, making it an obvious target for cost-cutters. NASA has delayed the first moon mission with astronauts several times, most recently announcing in December that the landing on the lunar surface won’t take place until 2027.

Despite the program’s setbacks, Congress has funneled billions of dollars to the program for years, in part to protect local economies.

Development of Boeing’s Space Launch System rocket and Lockheed Martin Corp’s Orion crew capsule supports tens of thousands of jobs in Republican-controlled states like Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

“The Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient,” Musk posted on his X social-media platform in December. “It is a jobs-maximizing program, not a results-maximizing program. Something entirely new is needed.”

Musk’s SpaceX though plays a key role in Artemis, building a lunar lander under a multibillion-dollar NASA contract.

Even if DOGE doesn’t suggest sweeping changes to the Artemis program, Trump’s incoming political appointees could also be the ones to dismantle NASA’s moon program through discussions with the Office of Management and Budget. It will ultimately come down to Congress — which funds NASA — to approve of any proposed changes to specific programs.

Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who is chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, told the same Washington conference on Feb. 12 he plans on reintroducing a NASA Authorization bill “very soon” that will mandate no changes to Artemis for at least a year.

But under the new administration, a historic shift might be underway as Republican lawmakers fall in line with Trump and his agenda. While some lawmakers like Cruz and Babin are still championing NASA’s marquee moon mission, others are embracing Musk’s efforts to shrink the U.S. government, even if it comes at the cost of jobs in their constituencies.

“I think that his involvement is great,” said Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, in an interview. ”I think we ought to figure out how to do things the most efficient way we can.”

Streamlining the Artemis program should include cuts at NASA, according to Florida’s Mike Haridopolos, a freshman GOP representative whose district includes the Kennedy Space Center.

“I’m a space supporter proudly, but remember when we have a $2 trillion budget shortfall, there’s going to be reductions in workforce,” he said. “The president has given a lot of people a lot of parachutes to get out and that’s going to include people at NASA.”

Some lawmakers caught in the middle, like Sen. Katie Britt, are treading delicately between their two priorities. The Artemis program employs roughly 22,000 people in Alabama, many of them concentrated at the Redstone Arsenal Army base near Huntsville.

“Obviously President Trump and his team, we’re going to be taking a look across the board at where we can do things better and more efficiently,” Britt said. “But I have every faith that the work that is done there at Redstone Arsenal is not only critical to our nation’s defense, but to future exploration.”

(Loren Grush contributed to this report.)

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©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Auburn fans roll Toomer’s Corner after win over Alabama

The toilet paper said it all Saturday night.

Auburn’s Chad Baker-Mazara had an altercation with Alabama fans, and Tide coach Nate Oats had to tell his fans not to throw things on the floor at Coleman Coliseum.

At the end of the day, rolling Toomer’s Corner capped the biggest regular-season basketball the state of Alabama has ever seen.

No. 1 Auburn went on the road and beat No. 2 Alabama 94-85 in the historic matchup of in-state rivals.

Auburn forward Johni Broome finished with 19 points, 14 rebounds, six assists, two blocks and a steal.

Broome and five teammates finished in double figures. Denver Jones scored 16 points, Baker-Mazara and Miles Kelly added 15 points apiece, Chaney Johnson had 14 and Tahaad Pettiford 13.

Mark Sears scored 18 points and Grant Nelson added 12 points and 12 rebounds for Alabama, which rallied from a double-digit deficit in the game, but failed to complete the comeback.

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.

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How Auburn basketball got its ‘swagger back’ defensively to beat No. 2 Alabama

Johni Broome was honest when he sat in front of a microphone following Auburn men’s basketball’s 94-85 win at No. 2 Alabama.

Despite still celebrating arguably the biggest regular season win in Auburn history, Broome took one last chance to reflect on the previous week’s lost to Florida, a game that questioned Auburn’s status as the No. 1 team in the country.

“Florida, they scored way too many points,” Broome said. “Our defense lacked a lot in that game.”

Defense was an issue in both of Auburn’s losses this season, making the matchup against Alabama’s fast-paced, fiery offense a challenge that it’d have to conquer to hold onto the No. 1 ranking.

The Tigers did just that, but Broome was never convinced that Auburn couldn’t do it.

“We’re the No. 1 team in the country. We’ve just got to get our swagger back and play Auburn basketball,” Broome said. “As you can see, when we play Auburn basketball, we’re the only team that can beat us.”

The meaning of playing “Auburn basketball” largely lies in the eyes of the beholder. What’s hard to argue, though, is that the Tigers needed a complete performance to beat No. 2 Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

The Crimson Tide entered Saturday’s game ranking second in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency ratings and led the country in points per game.

While Alabama still scored 85 points against Auburn — the second most the Tigers have given up this season — the Crimson Tide averaged 1.076 points per possession and shot 39% from the field, including an abysmal 5-for-26 from 3-point range.

Auburn had the most success defensively in the first half, holding Alabama to 33 points and 31% from the field.

“Our coaches put a great game plan in — how to guard their actions, especially the hardest actions,” Auburn guard Denver Jones said after the game. “Honestly, it was just listening to that and trusting my teammates.”

Jones has been Auburn’s perimeter defensive specialist all season, and was the primary defender on star Alabama guard Mark Sears.

Sears scored 18 points, but shot an inefficient 4-for-17 from the field and making just two of his 11 3-point attempts.

“How do you stay in front of Mark Sears? Hardly anybody can. Denver Jones did, and nobody talked about it,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said postgame. “He’s one of the best defensive players in college basketball. He needs to be on the Naismith All-Defensive team.”

Jones’ performance against Sears stood out, but Auburn’s defensive effort was solid across the board.

Alabama shot 14-for-30 on layups, a relatively inefficient night for a team that came into the game second in 2-point percentage, shooting over 60%. Auburn did a good job throughout the game of challenging shots at the rim, and did so while navigating through foul trouble.

Dylan Cardwell and Chad Baker-Mazara both fouled out of the game, but Auburn was still able to get enough stops to prevent Alabama from taking control.

“I was worried we were going to run out of gas, especially with Dylan in foul trouble,” Pearl said. “But again, found a way, sucked it up, made history.”

The performance moved Auburn up from 17th to 12th in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency ratings. More importantly, the win solidifies Auburn’s spot atop the Southeastern Conference standings and the AP poll.

Now, the focus shifts toward maintaining it.

“We’re gonna enjoy it for a little bit, but then it’s on to a good Arkansas team,” Broome said. “Credit to them, they played well. I’m proud of my teammates for putting up the fight that we did.”

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m

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Casagrande: After 53 seconds of mayhem, Auburn proved it was true No. 1

This is an opinion column.

For a moment, we had the basketball nirvana this overstuffed coliseum was craving.

High-stakes bloody knuckles saw No. 1 Auburn and No. 2 Alabama trading 3-point haymakers in a scene that fit the hype.

For a few fleeting basketball moments, it was absolute theater.

Then Auburn called for the curtain.

The biggest college basketball game this state has ever seen had its moment of drama but, ultimately, confirmed it was the lead dog in the Battle of Titans.

No. 1, for good reason.

The Tigers came into his hostile hangar and served notice it wasn’t bowing in the hardwood arms race that’s fixated this football holy land.

Auburn 94, Alabama 85 was nothing short of a primal assertion of power on the gilded stage.

It punched the second-ranked hosts in the face to open both halves of basketball and only briefly ceded momentum. It was 9-0, Tigers before Alabama knew what happened and got worse from there.

Auburn then came out firing again to open the second half — turning this into a 14-point rout. Rocking at tip, this place felt more like a mausoleum until Alabama opted in.

Briefly.

A quick 15-2 run set the scene for the moment of zen.

It began with Grant Nelson’s dunk that tied the game at 65.

Tahaad Pettiford’s 3-pointer 18 seconds later made it 68-65, Tigers.

Chris Youngblood tied it again, 8 seconds down the timeline with another 3.

Thirty-three ticks after that, Chad Baker-Mazara’s bomb became the bookend to the flurry.

More emotional swings than a junior high cafeteria.

Absolute whiplash between absolute pandemonium and the reciprocal hush.

After 53 seconds of madness, Auburn returned to the form and yanked the live wire from a Coleman Coliseum crowd that got a head start on the traffic.

Auburn was too big.

It was too physical.

Too balanced.

Better defense.

These Tigers have all the makings of a national title team and it flexed that potential in the biggest way Saturday. It can win in different ways — the key to translating February into March and, ultimately, April.

It never trailed in the most hostile environment this 57-year-old building’s produced.

The Tigers dictated the pace, the tone and the tenor of this rare meeting between teams who split No. 1 rankings between the two major polls.

There will be most conflict this Monday.

Not after Johni Broome led the pack of six Tigers who scored between 19 and 13 points. They took turns as lead dog but it was Pettiford, the freshman, who scored seven of his 13 in the minutes after Alabama tied it.

This is a Tiger defense that held Alabama to 5-for-26 shooting from 3-point range. That tied for the host’s fewest-made 3s this season, while the 19.2% success rate was its second-lowest of the season. Mark Sears went just 2-for-11 from deep. He and Grant Nelson combined to shoot just 9-for-28 from the field

Make a few more of those and this game feels different.

But Auburn also asserted itself in the paint. A bigger, longer lineup made life difficult near the rim for an Alabama offense that likes to test the painted area of the floor. The Crimson Tide made just 14 of 30 layups.

The Tigers were credited with six blocks officially but their size was a factor when Alabama guards tried to get to the rim. That was most evident in the closing moments as critical Tide possessions died in the paint as a long-armed defense swallowed the final gasps whole.

Alabama picked a bad day to have one of its worst shooting performances of the season since it, for an afternoon, solved its biggest offensive liability. Turnovers numbered just seven — its second fewest of the season.

Yet Auburn felt like it was in control of this one almost from the tip. It was a team that looked dialed in a week after appearing to let off the gas in a decisive home loss to Florida.

It didn’t play with the intensity befitting a No. 1 team seven days before it locked in an equally unfriendly setting.

Defense has separated these two in critical moments in recent games and did again Saturday.

After building the quick 9-0 lead, Auburn weathered the three major threats Alabama made for the lead.

It was a 6-0 spurt in a 25-second stretch early in the first when Alabama trimmed it to 14-13.

Another 6-0 run spanning 59 seconds later in the half when Alabama made it 26-25.

And a 7-0 sprint after Youngblood’s 3 tied it at 68, this time covering 1:21.

Alabama never got closer than five points after that.

Point proven.

Auburn lost the last two trips to Coleman Coliseum but flexed in this trip north — easily the most anticipated regular-season game this state’s ever seen.

For now, the Tigers can stake their claim to No. 1.

Alabama had its shot and a home-crowd tailwind for a blink there but Auburn was never fazed.

Unbothered by the moment.

Now the unquestioned No. 1.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.

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General

Nate Oats on message to fans throwing debris: ‘Don’t do dumb stuff’

Alabama head coach Nate Oats never saw debris being thrown. He found out about the situation unfolding during Alabama basketball’s loss to Auburn Saturday in Tuscaloosa from Crimson Tide athletics director Greg Byrne.

“Administration told me somebody threw something on the floor and if they did it again, we were gonna get a T in a game that was gonna be tight,” Oats said after the game. “Not really sure what the score was at that point. We weren’t trying to give away free points.”

With Alabama down by three points in the second half of Saturday’s game, Oats took to the PA microphone at Coleman Coliseum. He admonished the fans in the arena to stop throwing debris onto the court, and to “knock it off” during the Iron Bowl of Basketball.

Oats said after the game that he was disappointed if the culprit was one of Alabama’s fans.

“Doesn’t help us win,” Oats said. “Not sure what they’d be throwing something on the floor for anyways. That’s just asinine. Don’t do dumb stuff. I tell our players not to do dumb stuff and get flagrants and give the other team free points. We’re trying to win the basketball game on the scoreboard.”

Fans throwing debris was an issue throughout the college football season. LSU was fined $250,000 for an incident during its loss to Alabama.

Oats said he had never before had to make an announcement like Saturday’s at the college level.

“I was a high school coach for 11 years, so we had brawls break out in the stands back in high school,” Oats said. “I had not had to do that in college yet though. Takes one person to throw something. Had our attendance at 13,500 here, so 13,499 were hopefully really well behaved. But it takes one person to ruin it for everybody, so let’s make sure we don’t have that happen again.”

Alabama fell 94-85 to Auburn Saturday. The Crimson Tide will be back in action Wednesday, facing Missouri on the road.

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General

Alabama’s severe weather threat increases: Heavy rain, damaging winds, tornadoes possible across state

The risk for severe weather for all of Alabama is increasing, according to the National Weather Service.

NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center has expanded a Level 3 out of 5 or “enhanced” severe weather risk to include nearly all of the state.

A Level 3 risk means that numerous severe storms will be possible.

Just the northeast corner of the state and areas along the immediate coast were left in a Level 2 risk area, which means that scattered severe storms will be possible.

Tornadoes, including some strong ones, damaging winds and heavy rain will all be possible with a quick-moving line of storms expected to cross the state from west to east starting later tonight and lasting into Sunday morning.

Forecasters were particularly concerned about the threat for damaging straight-line winds, which could be near hurricane-force in some storms.

The SPC continued to highlight an area in central and south Alabama that had a higher probability of seeing those damaging wind gusts:

The storms could reach Alabama’s western border by 9 or 10 p.m. and quickly track to the east.

Northwest Alabama will likely get the first storms, and they could reach southwest Alabama later tonight or early Sunday.

The National Weather Service on Saturday evening noted that a tornado watch had been issued to the west of Alabama and said one that included this state would be possible later tonight.

Forecasters urge all Alabamians to have a reliable way of receiving severe weather warnings overnight.

The storms are expected to move out on Sunday, and colder and drier weather is expected on Sunday and Monday.

Here’s more from the National Weather Service:

NORTH ALABAMA

CENTRAL ALABAMA

SOUTH ALABAMA

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