GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Remember when the state of Alabama meant college football?
Remember the statement across the facade of Legion Field in Birmingham, where Alabama and Auburn used to stage their Iron Bowl every season, that said, “Football Capital of the South.”
Basketball is now the capital of sports in the state of Alabama, based on success in the won-loss column.
Alabama finished 9-4 last season in football – its worst season since 2007. It’s 5-3 mark in the Southeastern Conference was its worst since 2010. After dominating the two- and four-team playoffs under coach Nick Saban from 2009 through 2023 with six national championships, three runner-ups and a semifinal finish in the ’23 season, the Crimson Tide failed to make the first 12-team College Football Playoff this past season under new coach Kalen DeBoer.
The Tide lost to Oklahoma, which finished 6-7 and 2-6 in the SEC late last season. And it lost to a Vanderbilt team that finished 7-6 and 3-5 in the SEC. Vanderbilt, the worst of SEC football for most of its existence, had lost 23 straight to Alabama going back to 1985.
Auburn, meanwhile, has had four straight losing seasons in football under two head coaches – the longest stretch of Surrender Eagle since five straight from 1946-50. The Plain-bad-smen have not had a 10-win season since 2017. Auburn hired its current head coach, Hugh Freeze, two years ago, only after it couldn’t even attract the Ole Miss coach – Lane Kiffin.
Basketball at both schools was often only a light distraction between the end of football season and spring practice for much of history. Just six years ago at this time, neither program had ever been to a Final Four and each had just been to one Elite Eight ever.
Auburn (17-1) and Alabama (16-3) currently stand No. 1 and No. 4 in the Associated Press polls and No. 1 and No. 2 in the SEC at 5-0 and 5-1, respectively.
Auburn reached its first Final Four in 2019 and has gone to five NCAA Tournaments since 2018 under coach Bruce Pearl, who started in the 2014-15 season. Before Pearl, Auburn did not reach an NCAA Tournament from 2004-17 and had 11 losing seasons under three coaches. Pearl won SEC regular season titles in 2018 and ’22 after the program had not won one since 1999.
Alabama reached its first Final Four last season and has been to four NCAA Tournaments with a pair of Sweet 16s under coach Nate Oats, who started in the 2019-20 season. He won SEC regular season titles in 2021 and ’23 after Alabama had not won one since 2002. Alabama, which hasn’t won a national championship in football since 2020, could be closer to one in basketball now than in football.
LSU (12-6, 1-4 SEC) plays both monster programs over the next five days – at Alabama tonight (7:30, SEC Network) in front of an expected capacity crowd of 15,316 at newly raucous Coleman Coliseum and hosts Auburn on Wednesday (6 p.m., SEC Network).
Watch either Alabama or Auburn play, and it is clear they are in a different stratosphere than LSU, Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Oklahoma, who are at the bottom of the league with a combined 3-19 mark.
“They’re the fastest playing team in the country,” LSU coach Matt McMahon said of Alabama.
The Tide leads the nation in possessions per game with 78.8 and in scoring with 90.9 a game. LSU is 121st in scoring defense with 69.6 a game and is 65th in scoring at 79.7. Alabama also leads the country in rebounding with 44.7 a game. LSU is 42nd with 39 a game. An LSU win would be the biggest upset between the two schools in any sport since Curley Hallman’s 3-5 LSU football team beat the No. 5 defending national champions, 17-13, in Tuscaloosa, on Nov. 6, 1993.
“Where they have been elite and the best since I’ve been in the league is on the offensive glass,” McMahon said. “Just relentless for long rebounding.”
Alabama has four players averaging in double-figure points – senior guard Mark Sears with 19 and 4.9 assists, 6-foot-11 senior forward Grant Nelson with 12.6 and 8.7 rebounds, sophomore guard Aden Holloway with 11.4 and freshman guard LaBaron Philon with 11.3.
Senior guard Cam Carter leads the Tigers with 17.6 points a game and 19.4 in SEC games. Freshman Vyctorius Miller has missed LSU’s last two games with an ankle injury, but has a chance to play at Alabama. He scored double figures nine times in non-conference play.
“We need to get him back in the mix for scoring punch,” McMahon said.
That was an understatement, considering the next two opponents. LSU will not play two better teams back-to-back this season and has never played two better basketball teams consecutively from the state of Alabama in history.
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