It’s not a coincidence that both Iron Bowl of Basketball games between Alabama and Auburn fall on Saturdays this season.
The SEC wants to make basketball Saturdays mean more, like football game days. The showdown between the No. 3 Crimson Tide and the No. 1 Tigers looms as one of the biggest matchups of the 2024-25 season.
Alabama hosts Auburn on Saturday, Feb. 15, at 3 p.m. CT at Coleman Coliseum.
SEC men’s basketball associate commissioner Garth Glissman told the Tuscaloosa News that it was a “conscious decision across the conference” to make weekends interesting in hopes that they’d keep gamedays reserved after football helmets have been hung up for the winter.
“My goal is that we can harness the excitement and energy generated by SEC football, and then just carry that same passion and fandom into the winter so that SEC fans have grown so accustomed to, you know, cheering on their team all fall,” Glissman said. “It doesn’t have to stop when football season is over.”
With the idea that tailgate traditions might carry on, the league intentionally scheduled both 2024-25 games in the Alabama-Auburn series for Saturday tipoffs, he said.
“These big games, they can come and make a day of it,” Glissman said. “Almost like a college football Saturday.”
Auburn and Alabama will close out the regular season in Neville Arena in Auburn on March 8 at 1 p.m. CT.
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Author : The Tuscaloosa News
Publish date : 2025-02-10 18:01:00
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