TUSCALOOSA ?? The No. 25 ranked University of Alabama basketball team will try and avenge an earlier season loss when it hosts Auburn on Saturday in front of a sold-out Coleman Coliseum crowd.
Alabama is 19-8 overall and 6-7 in Southeastern Conference play where it trails Mississippi State and Ole Miss by a game in the SEC’s Western Division standings. Auburn is 15-13 overall and 5-8 in league play. Saturday’s 4 p.m. CST game is the second of two regular season meetings between Alabama and Auburn. Auburn won the first of the two meetings 81-57 in Auburn on January 23.
“Anytime Alabama and Auburn play, it’s always big. They’ve beaten us once already this year. I think our guys are playing a little bit better right now. We lost a tough one at Tennessee but I think anytime these two teams play, everybody obviously will be ready to play,” said Alabama coach Mark Gottfried whose team is trying to snap back from a 69-66 overtime loss at Tennessee as it heads into its final three games of the regular season in the next eight days.
“We treat each game the same. Every game is highly important in this league. I think any time you lose you can’t wait to get back on the court because you want to change that around. We have a lot of respect for Auburn. I think they’re very, very good, but I think there are great teams all over this league, so that’s how we’re going to look at it.”
Alabama is ranked No. 25 in this week’s AP and ESPN/USA Coaches polls. The Crimson Tide is led in scoring by sophomore forward Richard Hendrix who is averaging 14.8 points and 8.9 rebounds. He leads the SEC in field goal shooting percentages at .609% and ranks third in the SEC in rebounding and 11th in the SEC in scoring. Senior center Jermareo Davidson is just a fraction away from Hendrix’s numbers as he’s averaging 14.2 points and 8.6 rebounds.
“Auburn is all-around good. We are going to go in and prepare for them today (at practice). This time we need some ??get-back.’ We let one slide through the first time, and we need to come out make sure it doesn’t happen again,” said Davidson.
“I think we are a little bit of a different team now. We’ve been winning and we’ve learned from some of our mistakes. We’re still trying to lessen our turnovers, but I think now we are playing more as a team than maybe we were at that point in the season when we first played them.”
Saturday’s Alabama vs. Auburn game marks the 135th meeting in basketball between the two schools. Alabama leads the series 83 wins to 51 by Auburn. Auburn’s win in January snapped a seven game series win streak by Alabama. The last time Auburn won in Tuscaloosa was 1999 as Alabama has won the last seven straight against the Tigers in Tuscaloosa.
Following Saturday’s game Alabama has one home game remaining on its schedule. Alabama plays tribute to Davidson on his “Senior Night” on Wednesday, February 28 at 7 p.m. CST when the Tide hosts Ole Miss in another SEC Western Division showdown. Tickets remain to the Ole Miss game and can be purchased through Alabama’s website, www.rolltide.com or by calling 1-800-TIDETIX. Alabama ends the 2006-07 regular season at Mississippi State on Sunday, March 4.
