For Alabama Crimson Tide fans, any win over the Auburn Tigers is sweet. Saturday's Alabama Basketball win was payback for the earlier loss in Tuscaloosa and it also put Alabama back in solid contention for an NCAA Tournament 1-seed.
More important than how much fun the win was, it proved what the Alabama team is capable of, going into tournament season. This season any team that can beat Auburn in Auburn can beat any team in college basketball.
Not surprisingly, the two teams were in different moods after the game. Johni Broome covered his face with his jersey on the sideline. In his post-game review, Bruce Pearl talked about his star player. Put more bluntly, Pearl whined. "Johni Broome took 15 or 16 of his first shots in the paint, and did not go to the foul line. I have an issue with that."
Being fair to Pearl, as Alabama players were leaving the court, Pearl walked toward Auburn fans and implored them not to throw things at the Crimson Tide players.
After the game, Nate Oats talked about his team's composure during the intense contest. "I told the guys we’re not doing anything dumb. We’re trying to win the basketball game on the scoreboard. We don’t need any cheap shots. All that does is give the other team free plays."
Maybe Bruce Pearl does not have such conversations with his players. If Pearl does, at least one of them, Chad Baker Mazara does not heed his coach's words. Baker-Mazara getting thrown out of the game after a cheap shot to the head of Chris Youngblood, took one of Auburn's most talented players out of the game.
Alabama Basketball and 'Don't do anything dumb'
Talking about the Flagrant 2 foul, Nate Oats said, "It would have been nice if Chris would have converted on those two on the F2, but he (Baker-Mazara) was no longer available for his team. And I just told our guys, ‘Don’t do anything dumb. Let’s just be the hardest-playing, toughest, most-together team on the floor, and the score will take care of itself. We’re trying to win a basketball game. We’re not trying to win anything else. So whatever the cheap plays that they’ve had, we don’t need to do any of that stuff. We don’t need to do anything dumb and give them free points.’ And every point was needed tonight. It came down to the last possession. It came down to the last tenth of a second really.”
Nate Oats did not 'directly' call out the Tigers. But he didn't hesitate to demand his players not resort to cheap play tactics. There may be another IBOB in the coming week. It will be interesting to see if Auburn can curb dumbness. If not Pearl may be whining again.