Instant Analysis: Alabama 87, Auburn 85

They're deconstructing the court at Legacy Arena behind us. I'm Theo Fernandez, joined by Hunter DeSiver, Bama Central, Instant Analysis. Alabama, ending their preseason in style, 87-85 win over Auburn. First of all, Hunter, what's your takeaway from what we watched? I mean, we went into this one knowing that it was going to be intense. Maybe not this intense. Bottom line is, it only took about five minutes for Alabama and Auburn to get into a fight. and for there to be a whole big thing, a half-court, Nate Oates and Steamroll, they tried to break it up, but they were definitely screaming a bit. I spoke to the players about that as well in post-game, and that story's available on Bama Central. And then later in the game, at the end, there was another skirmish. But bottom line is, the intensity is there from both sides, but we're going to talk about some more things about the game, starting with physicality. Yeah, look, we had an incredible atmosphere, or an incredible, like, just full arena of half Alabama, half Auburn fans. It was great, but none of that would have came out if it weren't for the product on the court. And the product on the court, Stephen Pearl said it perfectly in his post-game presser, it felt like a Sweet 16 game in late October. That is what it felt like. This felt like they managed to capture all of the things that make these late, like, SEC, you know February Saturdays so great and they did it in October and that is incredible and you really saw first of all Alabama's freshman playing significant roles for this team right Samuel's had the highest plus minus on the team right I think he ended up 17 fouled out in the final seconds poor shooting night 6 for 19 from the field but still such an impactful player and guess what Alabama needs to stop late in that game and Samuel's exits who comes in It's Jackson Richardson. You're trusting a freshman in that moment, right? And Terrace Booey, man, his highlights by the end of the season. So athletic. It's going to be such a great tape to watch. Alabama just has impactful freshmen up and down the roster, and that's without the 17-year-old point guard who is going to be playing, right? And Cole Moore, who didn't play as well, who will be back by the opener. So Nate Oats continues to churn out these great, productive freshman classes. This one might be right up there near the top. Hunter, I want to, you know, we talked about one of the positives. Alabama got out-rebounded. Alabama got borderline killed on the offensive glass. What did you notice there? Last year and the year before, I feel like I wrote some sort of headline that says Alabama loses rebound battle. They just were out-physicaled on the glass, and it happened again. We saw against Furman that it wasn't great. Against Ole Miss, it was much better. But tonight they took another step backwards This has been the biggest emphasis of the offseason It's something that I've written In pretty much every single basketball article That I've written over the last couple months Is how they wanted to get bigger in the offseason It's the biggest emphasis There's only three guys or four guys on the roster That are under 6'6 And The rebound is still not there yet I asked Nate Oats Just about 20 minutes ago I asked him, what is your biggest takeaway from this entire preseason. And it's exactly what I expected. The rebounding still hasn't been great. The rebounding has not been great. Will it elevate to that point at some point in the season? We'll find out. Follow us here at Bama Central for all of our coverage throughout the basketball season. At the end of the day, Alabama took care of business. One, a high-pressure, high-leverage game. A lot of stuff to be excited about. And as we wrap it up, I want to leave us with one thing. I really hope that 365 days from now we are sitting right back here in this gym for another Alabama-Auburn game. This was one of the coolest, as cool as exhibition basketball gets, no brainer to continue doing this. I had a great time. I know you had a great time, Hunter. That'll do it for Bama Central Instant Analysis. Thank you for tuning in. Please follow Bama Central for all of your Crimson Tide athletic coverage.