No. 2 Alabama men’s basketball will host No. 1 Auburn on Saturday, the first of two annual regular season contests between the teams.
Saturday’s game will be the 171st overall meeting between the rival schools and the first-ever top-5 matchup in the series’ history.
The history of the rivalry
Historically, Alabama has gotten the better of Auburn, holding a 102-68 advantage over the Tigers in the series. The first meeting between the teams took place on March 1, 1924, in Atlanta, Georgia, with Alabama winning 40-19.
The two programs did not meet again for nearly 17 years, a trend that also took place in football. The schools were unable to agree on contracts or officiating, leading to an over 40-year hiatus between meetings on the gridiron.
They met on the hardwood for the second time on Feb. 28, 1941, in Louisville, Kentucky, where Alabama notched another win, 38-16. Alabama won the first five contests in the series before Auburn finally downed the Crimson Tide on Dec. 20, 1949, in a closely fought 45-40 contest.
Alabama won 20 of the first 25 editions of the Iron Bowl of Basketball. However, in the 1960s, Auburn found its stride, winning as many as eight consecutive matchups.
Under head coach Charles M. “C.M.” Newton, who served as head coach from 1968 to 1980, Alabama picked up nine of its series-best 11 straight wins against Auburn.
Newton left Alabama for Vanderbilt after the 1979-80 season and was succeeded by longtime assistant Winfrey “Wimp” Sanderson. Under Sanderson, Alabama went on one of the longest stretches of success in program history, sporting a record of 267-119 over Sanderson’s 12 seasons at the helm. Sanderson defeated Auburn 22 times, notably winning nine games in a row over the Tigers, the program’s second-longest winning streak in the series.
“I know that one game is not any more important than the other game, but it was to me,” Sanderson said about playing Auburn.
While neither program saw prominent success in the seasons following 2003-04, Alabama continued to defeat Auburn in the 2000s and 2010s, most notably in the 2018 SEC Tournament, where the No. 9 seed Crimson Tide upset No. 1 seed Auburn 81-63.
Both schools made program-changing hires in the 2010s, bringing the state of Alabama back to the national stage in college basketball. Both programs have made the NCAA Final Four and have both won the SEC Tournament twice since 2019.
Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl has a 10-11 record against Alabama, including a 4-6 mark against teams led by head coach Nate Oats. Alabama has won three of the previous four games in the series.
Alabama has a 60-20 record against Auburn in Tuscaloosa, a trend the Crimson Tide will hope continues Saturday and beyond.
What’s so special about 2025?
Coming into this weekend’s matchup, Auburn is 22-2 and was unanimously ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll for three consecutive weeks before a loss to then-No. 6 Florida at home on Saturday. The Tigers retained the top spot in the AP Poll this week despite the loss, earning 34 first-place votes to Alabama’s 23.
Both teams possess impressive talent with National Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome and preseason SEC Player of the Year Mark Sears the standouts between the two squads.
Renowned bracketologist Joe Lunardi has projected Alabama and Auburn to both earn No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, with his bracketology update from Tuesday placing the Tigers and Crimson Tide as the respective No. 1 and No. 2 overall seeds in the tournament field.
Defeating Auburn at Coleman Coliseum on Saturday would significantly boost Alabama’s SEC regular season title hopes, with both programs sitting at the top of the SEC standings heading into the matchup.
“Our goal is to win championships,” Oats said on “Hey Coach” Jan. 27. “The SEC regular season championship is one of them. We’re gonna have to beat them to win it.”
Auburn basketball legend Charles Barkley spoke in 2024 on ESPN about Auburn’s struggles against Alabama and the desire the school has to defeat its in-state rival.
“I’m probably going to get in trouble for saying this — we are like the stepchild,” Barkley said. “We aren’t ever going to be Alabama. If we play them in anything, we want to beat them.”
Not only would a win Saturday earn Alabama further in-state bragging rights, but it also may catapult the Crimson Tide into pole position in the race for an SEC regular season championship, a double-bye in the SEC Tournament and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Alabama’s highly anticipated matchup with Auburn will tip off on Saturday at 3 p.m. CT on ESPN, with ESPN’s College Gameday airing from Coleman Coliseum at 9 a.m. CT on ESPN.
