The No. 1 ranked Auburn Tigers and the No. 7 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide have each dropped their second-to-last game of the season ahead of the rematch between the two teams this weekend on The Plains to wrap up the regular season ahead of the SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament.
Auburn, who traveled out West to College Station to face the No. 22 ranked Texas A&M Aggies on Tuesday, dropped the game by a score of 83-72 for just their second SEC loss of the year. The Tigers, who had already locked up the regular season title, were missing one of their best guards in Denver Jones and are seemingly focused on getting healthy this week.
Alabama on the other hand hosted the No. 5 ranked Florida Gators and fell 99-94 in their final home game of the season. Mark Sears’ 30-point effort on Senior Night was not enough and the Tide drop to 12-5 on the season in the conference.
The game on Saturday afternoon in Neville Arena does not have extremely high stakes with the conference race already decided, but Bruce Pearl has stated he wants to sweep Alabama and the Tide would surely love to avoid making that happen while also earning a big win in a brutally difficult environment before the postseason begins.
It could also impact NCAA Tournament seeding for Alabama who is likely fighting to hold onto a two seed after a rough road at the end of the regular season. Auburn on the other hand has likely already secured the No. 1 overall seed even with a loss.
Without the dramatic consequences of a conference title on the line, there’s understandably not the same juice behind the second matchup as there was for the first, but any time these two teams face off in any sport, pride and bragging rights are on the line which always make for great entertainment.
