AMOS: College basketball is back and the state of Alabama is ready
College football is king in Alabama. There’s virtually no argument to the statement. Has been, is, and always will be. And college basketball will forever be in the background.
The gap between the two is narrowing at a rapid pace, and you can attribute that fact to two men - Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl and Alabama head coach Nate Oats. The two have put together unprecedented success and have done so simultaneously, seemingly each program raising the bar for the other over the last few years. And for me, a passionate college basketball fan, nothing makes me happier.
It doesn’t take long to see the results of their labor. And trust me, to succeed at a high level in THAT sport in THIS state takes passion. And both these guys have it in abundance. These two programs have never reached the current side-by-side heights ever - not Sanderson and Smith, not Ellis and Gottfried. Not any pair of Auburn and Alabama coaches. And there are no signs of things waning.
Look at some numbers … Pearl’s Tigers have averaged 24 wins the past six seasons, and that includes a disappointing 13-win COVID campaign. Auburn has been to four of the last five NCAA tournaments, highlighted by its Final Four run in 2018-2019. Alabama has made the last three NCAA Tournaments, highlighted by last season’s top overall seed. Both have led their teams to No. 1 rankings in the Associated Press Poll. The pair have combined for seven total Southeastern Conference regular season/tournament championships since 2018.
That brings us to 2022-2023, a season that could prove to be stronger for Southeastern Conference basketball than it was for its usually dominant football brethren. The league is more balanced than it’s ever been, and Pearl and Oats have played a large role in the transition.
“When I got back to Auburn, the league was deeper and there were greater commitments from athletic directors — there’s so many great coaches,” Pearl said earlier this month at Media Day in Birmingham. “Maybe there was a time when other great coaches didn’t come to the SEC because it was a football conference, but that’s not the case now.
“Facilities have improved. Everybody’s drawing, everybody has great home-court advantages. We’ve begun, like in the last I think four or five years, to put more guys in the NBA than anybody else, than any league. That stuff matters as far as recruiting is concerned, the best players, iron sharpens iron, they want to play against the best players.”
The Tigers and the Crimson Tide are both at a point in program development where a trip to the NCAA Tournament shouldn’t be the expectation - it’s a really good seed in the Dance. Yet the selected group of media members who cover the league picked the pair of in-state teams outside the top four, with Alabama 5th and Auburn 6th in the preseason poll. That alone speaks to SEC strength. In years past, the SEC has been middle of the pack among the major conferences. Last season the league was considered by most metrics to be the second best in the country, behind only the Big 12.
Tennessee was picked to win the league title, followed by Texas A&M, Arkansas and Kentucky. Eight teams made the NCAA Tournament a year ago - the six mentioned above along with Missouri and Mississippi State. Others in the league also have realistic post-season expectations.
It all gets cranked up in the first week of November, with Auburn jumping right into the fire with its opener against Baylor. Alabama eases into it’s non-conference schedule a bit slower, opening against Morehead State. Games with Ohio State, Purdue, Clemson, Creighton, and Arizona await the Tide, while Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, Indiana, and USC are among the teams the Tigers see down the road.
The days of padding pre-conference schedules are over for Auburn and Alabama. Pearl and Oats have seen to that. Brace yourselves SEC basketball fans. We may be about to experience things in this league of which we’ve never dreamed. And Pearl and Oats are really close to the forefront of the reasons why.
Recruiting pages to bookmark
2024 Auburn Tigers Commitment List and Evaluations
2025 Auburn Tigers Commitment List and Evaluations
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Join the Locked on Auburn Discord
