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Just a few short weekends ago, Auburn played one of its best games of the season in a thorough dismantling of Alabama in Auburn Arena 84-64. Now, the Tigers are in Tuscaloosa to face an Alabama team who surely wants revenge.
Alabama is currently 13-8 overall, and 6-3 in the SEC. Since that game against Auburn, they have defeated UGA and Mississippi State and lost to Arkansas on the road. They haven’t lost a conference game at home this season.
Not a whole lot has changed since my last preview against the Tide a few weekends ago. They do have two players averaging 10 points or more per game, though. They’re still averaging 69 points per game.* The magic number against them still seems to be in the 67 point region. If you score more than that, you’re going to win. They’re only allowing averaging 64.3 points per game, though.
Auburn is 14-8 overall, but only 3-6 in the SEC. The loss to Tennessee Tuesday night was rough, but it could have been much worse. Thankfully, there is the TCU victory in between the bad showings against South Carolina and Tennessee.
The Tigers’ freshmen will need big games in this one, again. It would be nice if Purifoy was healthy - he wasn’t healthy even in the last game against Alabama - but I’m not holding my breath for the Danjel who played the early season to be back in form, tonight.
The player Auburn needs to have a big game the most will be Austin Wiley. The Tide had absolutely no answer for him in the first game. If Auburn can get him going again and feed the ball to him under the basket as they did in that game and against TCU, then it could be another fun night. If he gets in foul trouble early, though, then it could be a rough night for Auburn on the road.
How to Watch, Stream, Listen
Time: 7:30pm Central
TV: SEC Network
Stream: WatchESPN
Listen: Auburn Sports Network
*Still nice