This is an opinion column.

Auburn basketball took me to Alaska and Long Beach. Alabama basketball got me to Seattle and San Francisco. UAB basketball tried to send me to Boise, but a March snowstorm grounded the plane in Minneapolis. So my most exotic trips with the Blazers were to Miami and Jamaica – Jamaica, Queens, to the campus of St. John’s.

So, yeah, me and Alabama basketball – Alabama the Beautiful, Alabama the state, Alabama the best-kept secret in hoops – we’ve been down a long road together.

It all came home this week.

First it was UAB in the first round of the NIT in Bartow Arena on Tuesday. Not even Andy Kennedy’s emergency root canal could take the bite out of the Blazers as they ran Southern Miss back to the Sun Belt.

Then came Thursday. This sport and this state had never seen anything like it. Not in the same building on the same day in the month when everyone takes note. This was March Madness to the max.