Tide sweeps Tigers in ugliness

What’s uglier than last night’s Alabama-Auburn basketball game?

Her:

But that’s about it.

Outmanned, the Auburn Tigers nearly worked a butt-ugly game plan to perfection, slowing the game to an agonizing grind. That game plan was simple.

“Play zone and hope they missed. Seemed to work,” said Tigers coach Tony Barbee.

Did it ever. Bama shot a dismal 26% from the field…11 for 42 to be exact.

One could sense desperation in the Coleman Coliseum air, as Auburn fouled an amazing 29 times. As a result, Bama’s 27 of 40 from the foul line is ultimately what won the contest.

How desperate was Auburn to get physical and try to dictate the pace of the game? They had four players foul out.

To give you an idea how ugly the game was offensively, Auburn was up 31-25 at the half. With 7:09 to play, Bama finally scored its 10th point of the second half.

Auburn would manage just 18 points in the second half, while Bama would best its own first half total only by one. Auburn scored just 8 points in the game’s final twelve minutes.

Chris Stewart, Alabama’s basketball play-by-play man, said it best. Watching the game was like going to the dentist’s office for a root canal, with no novocaine and a dentist who is having a bad day, in a bad mood and a bad case of the shakes.

It was utterly painful. The only entertaining aspect of it, besides JaMychal Green’s game winning tip in, was watching Auburn’s players flail themselves all over the court, soccer player style, when barely touched. It was like watching Andy Kaufman wrestling Jerry “The King” Lawler (look that one up), writhing at the most arbitrary contact.

Still, with Green’s last second heroics, Alabama stands at 19-8 overall, improving to 11-2 in the conference. With Florida hosting Georgia Thursday night, the Tide currently holds a half game lead in the SEC’s top spot.

Let’s just hope that the Tide’s final contests look nothing like this one. Win or lose, no one…not even Al from Dadeville…deserves that kind of punishment.

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