{"id":427982,"date":"2018-02-21T15:57:50","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T21:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/?p=427982"},"modified":"2018-02-21T15:57:50","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T21:57:50","slug":"alabama-and-auburn-have-separated-themselves-wimp-sanderson-on-the-opening-kickoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/alabama-and-auburn-have-separated-themselves-wimp-sanderson-on-the-opening-kickoff\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAlabama and Auburn have separated themselves\u201d: Wimp Sanderson on the Opening Kickoff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/wimp2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-427985\" src=\"http:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/wimp2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>By Scott McInnerney<br \/>\nWNSP Reporter<\/p>\n<p>MOBILE, AL \u2013 The Alabama-Auburn rivalry has heated up in basketball this week, as the two teams face off Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Former Alabama head coach Wimp Sanderson joined WNSP on the Opening Kickoff this morning and shared his thoughts on the game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI personally think that Alabama and Auburn have separated themselves from the other 12 teams,\u201d said Sanderson. \u201cThey\u2019re playing better. They are better.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Alabama is very skilled, and I don\u2019t say this based on my past. I just think that. And Auburn is very skilled too. Bruce has done a nice job with this team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Auburn is leading the SEC, while Alabama is three games behind in third place. Alabama and Auburn played this season on Jan. 17, and the Crimson Tide upset Auburn 76-71 in Tuscaloosa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think Alabama\u2019s got a chance to win tonight,\u201d Sanderson said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to come down to who doesn\u2019t turn the ball over, who rebounds offensively and defensively, and gets out with, not only the three-ball, but the layups, the fast breaks. They don\u2019t count for as many points, but you\u2019ve got to have those in order to win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Auburn has two players who are injured: center Anfernee McLemore, who underwent season-ending surgery Saturday, and leading scorer Bryce Brown, who hurt his foot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019ll be a tough game for both teams,\u201d said Sanderson. \u201cFor Alabama, they\u2019re playing at Auburn, so they\u2019re going in and playing the way they want to play. For Auburn, it will be tougher because two players are injured.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both teams are looking to bounce back from road losses on Saturday. Alabama lost to Kentucky 81-71, and Auburn was upset by South Carolina 85-74.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe inconsistent play happens to everybody,\u201d Sanderson said. \u201cIt should be a good basketball game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For more, you can listen to the full interview below and listen to the Opening Kickoff weekday mornings from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on WNSP.<\/p>\n<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-427982-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/WimpSanderson022118.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/WimpSanderson022118.mp3\">http:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/WimpSanderson022118.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>By Scott McInnerney WNSP Reporter MOBILE, AL \u2013 The Alabama-Auburn rivalry has heated up in basketball this week, as the two teams face off Wednesday <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/alabama-and-auburn-have-separated-themselves-wimp-sanderson-on-the-opening-kickoff\/\" title=\"\u201cAlabama and Auburn have separated themselves\u201d: Wimp Sanderson on the Opening Kickoff\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4489,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,106,33,176],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-427982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-featured-news","7":"category-on-the-air","8":"category-sec","9":"category-top"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427986,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427982\/revisions\/427986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}