Alabama beat Auburn 87-85 in The Feud exhibition last night, with a bench-clearing scuffle five minutes in - does an exhibition like this actually tell us anything about either team?
Alabama and Auburn played their first ever Feud exhibition last night at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, streamed free on YouTube, and Alabama escaped 87-85. Amari Allen took over late with 23 points for Alabama, freshman Qayden Samuels had 20 despite fouling out, and the whole thing boiled over into a scuffle less than five minutes in, with both coaches jawing and four technicals handed out. Alabama is ranked 18th in the preseason coaches poll, Auburn unranked, and they meet twice more in SEC play. Exhibition games are supposed to be tune-ups, but nobody told these two that. So how much do you read into it: is Allen a real breakout, is Auburn closer than the polls say, or is this just rivalry noise that means nothing by November 3 when the real season starts?
1 answer
- Watched it free on YouTube and it felt real
I watched the whole thing on the free Knight Eady stream and honestly it did not feel like an exhibition at all. The scuffle five minutes in set the tone, and both benches were into every run. You cannot learn much from one exhibition box score, but you can learn that neither team is going to back down in the two SEC meetings. Allen closing it late matters more than the final margin: that is the guy Alabama will lean on in close games. Auburn hanging within two on the road, basically, tells me the polls are sleeping on them a bit.