Coffee and Magnolia: 20 March 2015

BRACKET CHALLENGE

Just a reminder of our BRACKET OF BRACKETS challenge! Voting on round 1 should close, tonight. Then tomorrow morning I'll have Round 2 ready for you!

BASKETBALL

Fresh off their victory yesterday in the NCAA Tournament and all of the jokes about Alabama wanting to shut the basketball program down, now, UAB may have a multi-year contract to play Auburn in basketball, soon. It's not like this is one of those things we're throwing their way due to all of the football stuff, either. I recall Bruce Pearl wanting to work on a series with UAB almost as soon as he was hired.

Bruce Pearl has been at Auburn for one year as of this past Wednesday, and says Auburn is his home. Hopefully we have him for a long time, and that we see plenty of things just like this:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>This was <a href="https://twitter.com/coachbrucepearl">@coachbrucepearl</a> 1 year ago on <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeAndMike">@MikeAndMike</a> - he makes his return to the set this morning at 8 CT <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WarEagle?src=hash">#WarEagle</a> <a href="http://t.co/9F58ZxcGLC">pic.twitter.com/9F58ZxcGLC</a></p>&mdash; Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) <a href="https://twitter.com/AuburnMBB/status/578896350739238914">March 20, 2015</a></blockquote>

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BASEBALL & SOFTBALL

Both teams play tonight in Auburn! You can see the information on how you can catch both games in Everett's "Home on the Plains."

The Softball team is up to their highest ranking in team history and leads the nation in long-balls with 64 in their 31 games.

FOOTBALL

Day 5 of Spring Practice is in the books, and the Tigers will now take a break for the next week. Gus Malzahn spoke to the press about it, yesterday. According to the official site, Gus is happy with where the team is, right now.

Travaris Robinson wasn't just a great hire for Auburn for his recruiting ability. He's also an excellent defensive backs coach, and is always in motion according to two defensive backs interviewed this week during their media availability.

Former quarterback Jonathan Wallace has made the transition to wide receiver on a permanent basis, this spring. This is unsurprising given the Tigers have Jeremy Johnson, Sean White, Tyler Queen, and Jason Smith all on campus and practicing. There are plenty of parallels between Wallace and former Tigers QB and WR Kodi Burns. Hopefully Wallace has the same type of senior season Kodi did (complete with catching a TD pass in the national championship game).

In former Tigers news, Tony Richardson has been inducted into the Reese's Senior Bowl Hall of Fame. Richardson was a fullback for Auburn in the early 90s. His senior season was the magical undefeated 1993 season. Richardson was an undrafted free agent, but still played in the NFL for 16 years.