It's on to the SEC Tournament for the Alabama Crimson Tide, as Nate Oats and Co. have a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament in mind. Plain and simple, if Alabama can win the conference tourney, those dreams will come true.
Before taking the hardwood, though, plenty of fans have been waiting to see if Bruce Pearl and the Auburn Tigers were going to end up sitting Chad Baker-Mazara for a game or two. Last weekend, Baker-Mazara made countless headlines when he fired off a dirty elbow on Chris Youngblood.
It led to a flagrant 2 and CBM was ejected. Since then, analysts and reporters have been calling for a suspension to arrive. However, it doesn't look like that's going to happen, as Pearl told reporters he had a private conversation with Baker-Mazara over the incident and that, 'we're good.'
Pearl was pressed again on CBM: "Don't you think my conversations with him should be my conversations with him?"
— Justin Hokanson (@_JHokanson) March 12, 2025
He continued, "regardless of if it's a retaliation...it's unacceptable. But I"m not going to talk to you about my conversations with all my players." https://t.co/QxWSN5ZYTi
Chad Baker-Mazara appears to have avoided a suspension for his elbow vs. Alabama
Pearl didn't hold back in calling out Baker-Mazara for the unacceptable move, but it looks like the two just had a private talk and the situation is being handled internally. Pearl also wouldn't go into the specifics of what he told his veteran guard about his ejection that haunted the Tigers vs. the Tide.
In the end, Mark Sears delivered with one of the best shots of the season, taking down Auburn in buzzer-beating fashion. Youngblood was understandably upset after Baker-Mazara posted the cheap shot, but he didn't retaliate.
Instead, he let the official take care of things by going to the monitors and tossing Baker-Mazara from the contest. Plenty of people are pretty upset that Baker-Mazara won't get suspended, as this isn't the first time he's been involved in a pretty controversial play.
At the end of the day, this is Pearl's call and he handled things the way he best saw fit. Moving forward, there's a chance that we could see Alabama and Auburn face off in the SEC Tournament title game. If that happens, countless eyes will be on Baker-Mazara and Youngblood to see how things go down. It'd be a huge, intriguing game on Sunday if these two squads indeed go to battle with the hardware on the line.