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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Regardless of the outcome, it'll be a surreal game that no one in the Southeastern Conference, or at Alabama, will likely forget. 

When Alabama and Tennessee square off at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday at noon CT (SEC Network), it'll begin day two of the 2020 SEC Tournament in Nashville. But it'll be the first game of the tournament played in essentially an empty building. 

Wednesday evening, the  league announced that all sporting events, both during tournaments and on-campus, would be closed to public through the end of the month due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. By April 1, the situation will be re-evaluated and an update issued. 

If that wasn't enough of a distraction, the No. 9-seeded Crimson Tide will be trying to revive its dim NCAA Tournament hopes. One win won't be enough, yet a loss will extinguish any chance.  

"We practice in front of no fans," sophomore guard Kira Lewis Jr. said earlier this week about the possibility of playing in an empty arena. "Everything's going to be the same, just no fans."

While the experience may be unique in that TV microphones will obviously pick up a lot more of what's being said, and the Crimson Tide won't have to worry about the noise from in-state Volunteer fans, it's anything but an ideal matchup for Alabama (16-15 overall, 8-10 SEC). 

Coming off its worst offensive showing of the season against the SEC's second-best defensive team, Missouri, it has to face the only opponent that's been at keeping other teams from scoring.

Specially, Missouri comes into the tournament having yielded 65.2 points per game, and Tennessee 64.2. 

That's a tall task indeed, especially since junior wings Herb Jones (wrist) and John Petty Jr. (elbow) are both trying to play through injuries. 

When Rick Barnes brought his team to Coleman Coliseum on Feb. 4, Alabama took a tough 69-68 loss on its home court. 

Tennessee trailed 39-24 late in the first half before mounting a massive comeback in the second half. 

The matchups that were especially problematic were against the Volunteers' front-court players, 6-9 junior forwards Yves Pons and John Fulkerson.

"Second half they came out and rebounded 56 percent of their misses," Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said. "They killed us on the glass the second half."

With Alabama's best defensive player Jones sidelined, Tennessee grabbed 19 offensive rebounds, eight by Pons. The Volunteers also went to the line 32 times and made 23. Alabama was just 5-for-8.

In the second half, the Vols had a 21-2 edge in attempts from the charity stripde.

"They kind of manhandled us in the second half," Oats said.

Pons had blocked a shot in every game this season, and Tennessee (17-14, 9-9 SEC) leads the league in blocked shots at 5.6 per game.

"I think he's the best athlete in the league," Oats said of Pons. "It was a tough matchup for Petty."

Fulkerson scored a career-high 22 points, while senior guard Jordan Bowden had 20. 

"We have to do better guarding, keeping the ball out of Fulkerson's hands," freshman guard Jaden Shackelford said. "He was a big problem for us last game. Just have to do better on the defensive end."

Lewis led the Crimson Tide with 19 points and Shackelford netted 12 in the first go-around with the Vols. Alabama also had forwards Javian Davis, Galin Smith and Alex Reese foul out.  

But the Crimson Tide made 11 three-pointers, so the game plan pretty much stays the same: Make shots, focus on defense and don't worry about anything else like the lack of crowd noise. 

"Our offense will come," Shackelford said.