It had a playoff-like atmosphere and a sold-out crowd that didn’t stop cheering from the first pitch to the final out.

It just didn’t mean anything, both in the standings nor as a means of foreshadowing, when Alabama and Auburn’s baseball teams met at the Capital City Classic in Montgomery last year.

The Tigers beat the Crimson Tide in dramatic fashion, scoring two runs in the ninth inning before then-freshman Zach Blatt earned his first career win to close out Auburn’s 8-7 victory.

Two months later, Alabama was in the SEC Tournament and Auburn was not.

Despite its failure to predict the future, tonight’s rematch at Riverwalk Stadium will be beneficial, first baseman Hunter Morris said, even if it might not bring immediate satisfaction to the Tigers’ untouched conference record.

“It’s bigger for the fans than it is for us,” Morris said. “It’s good for us to get out there and see possibly the best competition we’ve seen this year thus far.

“But it’s important for the fans, both our fans and the Alabama fans. It’s something exciting and something I’m glad we get to do and be a part of.”

The biggest short-term benefit that might come as a result of tonight’s happenings will center on how Cory Luckie performs in his second start of the season.

Luckie, who missed all of 2009 with an arm injury, started the season out of the bullpen, but picked up a start last Wednesday against Davidson. Restricted to a pitch count, Luckie went just 4 1/3 innings, but was brilliant, striking out nine batters and allowing just one run.

With the way Jon Luke Jacobs has struggled to open the season, and the inconsistency displayed by Grant Dayton, it’s not out of the question Luckie could find himself in Auburn’s starting rotation by the time conference play opens March 19 against Georgia.

Coach John Pawlowski said he’ll likely have to finalize the rotation before this weekend’s series at Arizona State.

“If we want to get him in the rotation,” Pawlowski said, “it’s going to have to happen this weekend.”

Like the majority of the SEC, Auburn is off to a hot start, winning nine of its first 11 games. Alabama didn’t pick up its first loss until Sunday, when it fell, 7-6, at the College of Charleston.

Only four teams in the SEC have three or more losses in their first 12 games.

When Auburn beat Alabama at the Capital City Classic last year, it was the Tigers’ eighth win in what ended up becoming an 11-game winning streak. The Tigers then won just 18 (nine SEC) of their final 39 games, missing out on the SEC Tournament for the sixth consecutive season.

“Anytime you get Auburn and Alabama together, it doesn’t matter what sport, it makes an intriguing matchup,” Pawlowski said. “Last year, the stadium was absolutely packed, it was a great ballgame and we were very fortunate to come out with the win. I know our kids are excited about it and looking forward to it.

“If you want to be the best and compete at the highest level, you’ve got to play good teams and Alabama is certainly one of the top teams.”

agribble@oanow.com| 737-2561

(Photo credit: Leffie Dailey)

Cole Nelson didn’t have his normal week of preparation, didn’t have his slider and didn’t really have his sharpest outing Sunday.

It’s tough to figure what the lanky lefthander will be able to do when he puts it all together, because his seven-inning, two-run, eight strikeout, no-walk effort – good enough for his third win in three ties and good enough for Auburn’s 5-4 victory over Miami (Ohio) – sure looked good on paper.

“Sometimes you just have days where everything is not there,” Nelson said. “I’ve got a couple places to look at now to improve. I think it was kind of a good test of will to see if I could do it.”

Nelson’s third consecutive quality start, combined with continued clutch hitting from the middle of the lineup and a gritty effort from relief pitcher Zach Blatt, gave Auburn its first sweep of the season and its sixth straight victory.

Granted, this was the same place Auburn was last year and the wins have come against Florida Atlantic, Davidson and Miami (Ohio), but it had the Tigers feeling pretty good about the season to date as it heads into a non-conference game Tuesday against Alabama.

“It’s a solid nine guys in the lineup and we’ve got solid guys off the bench that are doing a great job,” first baseman Hunter Morris said. “It carries some momentum.”

Whatever momentum Nelson carried from his impressive outing last week was wiped away by an unplanned trip home Monday to visit his ill father.

Nelson left Monday morning for Edina, Minn., and didn’t get back to Auburn until shortly before Friday’s first pitch at 6 p.m. He played some catch during the week and threw a short bullpen session Friday night, when he decided he’d pitch his third consecutive Sunday.

“He said he wanted to pitch,” coach John Pawlowski said. “Sometimes that’s the best thing to get right back out there.”

Nelson struggled from the start, allowing a solo home run to Adam Weisenburger and two more singles in the first inning. He needed a lot of pitches then and he needed a bunch when he allowed another run in the fourth inning, but Nelson found a way to battle out of jams.

His effective change-up compensated for a subpar slider, but more often it was clutch defensive plays from the likes of centerfielder Creede Simpson and second baseman Justin Hargett that helped keep the RedHawks from ever reclaiming its early lead.

“Defense bailed me out. A lot,” said Nelson, who is 3-0 with a 1.73 ERA. “I let them put it on the ground, and sometimes line drives and the defense kept coming up big.”

Auburn’s hitters didn’t come up as big as it did when it combined for 27 runs and 38 hits in the first two games of the series. And the Tigers needed every last run.

Morris, who had been mired in an early-season slump, picked up four hits for the second consecutive game, including a two-run home run in the first inning. Tony Caldwell added a solo shot in the second and Kevin Patterson and Dan Gamache – two of the team’s slower-footed players – hit back-to-back triples to jump-start a two-run seventh inning.

Auburn’s two-three-four hitters – Simpson, Morris and leftfielder Brian Fletcher – went 9-for-12 Sunday and 26-for-40 with 13 runs and 14 RBIs for the weekend.

“If we can get Hunter and Fletch swinging it like that in conference play,” Pawlowski said, “it bodes well for our offense.”

Blatt, an Opelika native, earned the first save of his career by working the final two innings. He gave up a double on the first pitch of the eighth and a two-run home run to Jordan Jankowski before settling down to retire the next five batters in order.

“Him and (Austin Hubbard) are both so competitive down there,” Pawlowski said. “They’re going to have to pitch through some tough spots and I thought Zach did a good job today.”

TUSCALOOSA — The first foul came a little more than 2 minutes after he stepped on the court.

The second was whistled less than 2 minutes later.

Just like that, Brendon Knox was back on the bench Saturday, behind the 8-ball.

Knox didn’t foul out for the ninth time this season in Saturday’s 73-61 loss to Alabama, but the early foul trouble he found at a sold-out Coleman Coliseum relegated him to an SEC-low 15 minutes.

The senior bigman had a front-row seat for the other 25, as Tay Waller and DeWayne Reed tried to shoot Auburn out of an early-game slumber that never went away against Alabama’s stingy perimeter defense.

“He can look like 100 bucks one night and just looks like he never played the next,” coach Jeff Lebo said. “When he plays well, it opens up so many things for us offensively.

“I’d fix it if I could.”

Alabama’s win vaulted it ahead of Auburn in the final Western Division standings because of a lengthy list of tiebreakers that went one step away from a coin flip. South Carolina’s 77-73 victory at Vanderbilt on Saturday ended up being the difference-maker, as the Gamecocks slid ahead of Georgia into fifth place in the Eastern division.

Because the Tigers (15-16, 6-10 SEC) lost to South Carolina and Alabama (16-14, 6-10) did not, Auburn will face Florida in the first round of the SEC Tournament on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Nashville, Tenn.

The job status of Lebo, who is now 35-61 against SEC opponents in his six years with Auburn, promises to be a hot topic at the Sommet Center, but Lebo said he won’t be focused on it during this week’s preparations.

“I don’t worry about that. I’m worried about my team,” Lebo said. “We’ve got to get ready for a game and that’s my plan and where 100 percent of my effort is going to be.

“We’ve got to get consistent play from everybody if we hope to do anything in the tournament.”

Knox’s consistency has been a problem all season.

He’s had dominant performances, such as his 22-point effort against South Carolina to open SEC play and his 21-point game Wednesday against Mississippi State, but he’s also had games such as his 2-point, 5-turnover effort at Tennessee and the one he capped the regular season with Saturday.

Knox, who finished with 6 points, averaged just 6 points per game in road conference games compared to an 11.9 average at home. Four of the six times he’s fouled out during SEC play occurred away from home.

The Tigers are just 2-6 in games he fouls out.

“That’s one of his Achilles heels,” Lebo said. “He gets fouls quickly and then he’s not particularly good when he’s playing with fouls. He’s got to be smarter at that point and is just not a factor in the game at all.”

With Knox on the bench, Waller and Reed started chucking, especially during the second half, when Auburn slowly saw the 1-point deficit it was chasing at halftime turn into double digits. Alabama’s 10-1 run with less than 5 minutes to play helped seal the Tide’s first win over Auburn in the past five meetings.

Waller finally simmered down after his recent hot stretch, finishing with a team-high 22 points while shooting 4-of-12 from 3-point range. He came into Saturday having shot 64 percent from beyond the arc and averaging 26.5 points over the past four games.

Reed had 17 points, but was just 5-of-19 from the field and took too many bad layups during the second half. He really didn’t have any other choice.

The Tigers are 4-15 whenever Reed attempts 12 or more shots. He was 1-for-10 in the second half Saturday.

“It was frustrating playing without an inside presence,” Reed said. “It was kind of hard for us and we had to force shots.”

Auburn’s only other inside threat, Lucas Hargrove, had one of his toughest games of the season, both on offense and defense.

The victim of merciless taunting from Alabama’s student section, Hargrove had just 3 points and 5 turnovers, while struggling to keep up with Tony Mitchell (16 points) and Chris Hines (13) on the other end of the floor.

“Lucas struggled,” Lebo said. “He had a rough day today.”

agribble@oanow.com| 737-2561

Photo: Todd Van Emst

DULUTH, Ga.—Nell Fortner likes to think she has a 3-point shooting team, even if the numbers don’t exactly back it up.

The Tigers entered their SEC tournament first-round game with Florida ranked at the bottom in the SEC in 3-pointers made and were just one away from having the fewest attempts. That’s because Auburn has just two active players, Alli Smalley and Blanche Alverson, who have the green light whenever a crevice of space opens on the perimeter – not exactly a frequent occurrence throughout the regular season.

The prologue was irrelevant to Fortner on Thursday, though, as the perimeter came open at the right time for the Tigers, allowing them to extend their season at least one more day.

Smalley and Alverson combined for eight 3-pointers, all of which seemingly came at the perfect time – backbreaking for the Gators—in Auburn’s 74-61 upset victory.

Tenth-seeded Auburn (15-15) will play No. 2 Kentucky (23-6) at 1:30 p.m. in today’s quarterfinals at the Gwinnett Center.

“Those two are dangerous,” Fortner said. “If you start shooting now, I’ll take that.”

Smalley knocked down a season-high five 3’s en route to a career-high 29 points. Alverson, playing in front of a huge group of friends and family, sunk her first two shots and hit a big 3-pointer midway through the second half to finish with 13 points – one shy of her season-high.

The timeliness of their 3’s made the majority of the game one-sided, as the Tigers used an 8-0 run early to extend a lead they would not relinquish. The Gators drew as close as 4 points in the second half – a deficit that lasted all of 17 seconds.

“Alli and Blanche didn’t do things that we didn’t expect for them to do,” Florida coach Amanda Butler said. “They were open, and great shooters knock down open looks when they’re not guarded.”

As the numbers indicate, it wasn’t always that easy during the regular season.

One year after sinking 68 3-pointers while playing alongside the likes of DeWanna Bonner, Whitney Boddie and Sherell Hobbs, Smalley has dealt with excessive pressure inside and outside, the perks of becoming Auburn’s focal point on offense. She came into Thursday’s game tops on Auburn with 15.2 points per game, but just 51 3’s – the result of a modified game that has merited more darting and diving to the hoop and less time hanging out on the perimeter.

So pardon Smalley for smiling a bit after a throwback night of sorts for her, as Florida frequently collapsed to the ball in the paint, allowing her to find some previously unseen open space.

“It was actually really nice,” Smalley said. “I had a lot of open looks, a lot of air.”

Three different theories emerged in the aftermath of Auburn’s best 3-point shooting day against an SEC opponent this season as to why it happened.

Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell, watching the game from press row, said it had to do with the presence of big center KeKe Carrier, who, statistically, had one of her poorer games of the season. Carrier picked up her third foul with 8 minutes to play in the first half and eventually fouled out in the second, finishing with 6 points and seven rebounds in 20 minutes.

On the surface, her moments of frustration against a physical Gators’ defense outweighed tangible production, but Mitchell saw otherwise.

“She did exactly what they needed her to do,” Mitchell said. “Today her role was to set up other people. I thought she was extremely effective today and clearly someone we’re very concerned about.”

Smalley heaped the credit to her post-game podium cohort Jordan Greenleaf, who finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Greenleaf’s first priority on offense wasn’t to score, instead setting up Smalley and Alverson with slick backdoor passes or screens.

“When I don’t have the ball, I’m always looking to find where Alli is,” Greenleaf said. “The ball needs to be in her hands.”

Butler placed the blame on her team, which faltered down the stretch, losing six of its last seven games to close out a disappointing year.

“We had much higher hopes than the way we performed today,” Butler said.

Auburn’s hopes of clinching WNIT eligibility rest on today’s game. A win clinches a .500 or better record for the season – a requirement for the now 64-team tournament.

“I’m excited to play them again,” Greenleaf said of Kentucky, which Auburn upset Sunday to close out the regular season.

“I’m excited to play anybody.”

You want them, we’ve got them.

Here are the six former Auburn football players who will participate in the university’s Pro Day at 1 p.m. Tuesday:

Antonio Coleman, Walt McFadden, Gabe McKenzie, Jake Ricks, Ben Tate and Chris Todd.

Just thought you’d like to know.

(Photo credit: Todd Van Emst)

I’m about to hit the road to Duluth, Ga., for the Auburn women’s basketball team’s first-round, SEC Tournament matchup with Florida, but before I leave, I want to confuse the heck out of all of you.

A long discussion took over the media room after last night’s historic 89-80 upset over Mississippi State when it came to determining Auburn’s potential SEC Tournament seed. Considering that Auburn will need upsets galore to make an impact in the tournament, whatever seed it receives may seem minute. And it very well may be. But the difference between the fourth and fifth seed is huge, considering that one team, should it win its first-round game, would face Final Four favorite Kentucky, while the other would match up with an apparently very beatable Mississippi State team.

The craziest part? The fifth-seed, while drawing a much better team in the first round, would get the Bulldogs.

Here are a few things we know about Auburn, which currently sits alone in fourth place with one game to play against fifth-place Alabama.

- The Tigers can finish anywhere from third to fifth.
- A win Saturday clinches nothing worse than the fourth seed.
- A loss Saturday doesn’t necessarily leapfrog Alabama ahead of Auburn in the standings.

First, let’s run down all the tiebreakers, listed in order of their relevance.

1. head-to-head
2. division record (10 games)
3. record vs. No. 1 team in division proceeding through the No. 6 team if necessary
4. non-division record (6 games)
5. record vs. No. 1 team in the opposite division proceeding through the No. 6 team if necessary
6. coin flip by the Commissioner.

If we’re just talking about the battle for the fourth seed, these will only be required if Auburn loses to Alabama on Saturday. If that happens, it gets crazy messy, but a coin flip will not be required.

Tiebreaker No. 5 will be the determining factor, and it will come down to the final standing of the East’s two bottom-dwellers, South Carolina and Georgia. Both teams are tied for fifth at 5-10. Auburn beat Georgia, Alabama beat South Carolina. South Carolina plays at Vanderbilt on Saturday, Georgia is at LSU.

If South Carolina wins, it will finish higher than Georgia no matter what the Bulldogs do against LSU because of its win earlier in the season against Kentucky. That scenario would bump Alabama ahead of Auburn for fourth place.

If South Carolina loses, it still doesn’t matter what the Bulldogs do against LSU because Georgia’s 4-6 division record would be better than USC’s 3-7 mark. That scenario would keep Auburn in fourth place, even if it lost to Alabama.

The Tigers, though, can do better than the four-seed. Here’s how.

They have to win and Arkansas has to lose. That’s it.

What, you thought there’d be more? We only have to go to Tiebreaker No. 2 to settle this debate. An Auburn win Saturday would give it a 6-4 record in the division. An Arkansas loss to Ole Miss on Saturday would not only prevent it from finishing in second place—which it would with a victory—but it would drop its division record to 5-5.

That scenario would pit Auburn against whichever team finishes worse between South Carolina and Georgia for the first round and Vanderbilt in the second round.

Don’t get your hopes up if Ole Miss loses out and finishes with the same, 7-9 division record as the Tigers. The Rebels own Tiebreaker No. 1 over Auburn because of their two victories over the Tigers this season.

From Wally Tinker

Wally Tinker, game ball in hand, strolled past the free-throw line and stopped about 7 feet from the hoop outside the paint.

With 9,927 fans cheering as loudly as they had all night in Auburn’s 89-80 upset victory Wednesday over Mississippi State, the former Tiger wasted little time before sending a high-arching shot toward the hoop, stationed right around the same place he hit the first basket in Beard-
Eaves-Memorial Coliseum more than 41 years ago.

With an old-school, off-the-glass swish, Tinker made it look just as easy as four of the Tigers’ six seniors made it look all Wednesday night, an historically fitting ending not only to the arena’s history, but for the largely overlooked Senior Night.

“We had six seniors that you want to honor and send this place out in the right way,” coach Jeff Lebo said. “There have been so many memories in this place.”

Tay Waller, DeWayne Reed, Brendon Knox and Lucas Hargrove all made sure the memory from Wednesday night — 41 years, one month and 24 days since the Tigers opened Memorial Coliseum with a 90-71 victory over LSU — would be just as positive.

The four players combined for 78 of Auburn’s 89 points in the best inside-outside performance of the season, giving the Tigers five consecutive home victories to close out the arena.

to Sir. Charles

“We came out with a different mentality,” Waller said. “We saw all of the people here and we didn’t want anyone to go home sad. We felt like we had to fight for all the players of Auburn’s past.

“The win just made tonight all the much better.”

The win didn’t solidify anything for Auburn’s seeding hopes for the upcoming SEC Tournament, but it certainly didn’t hurt. The loss for Mississippi State, the SEC West Division leader, may have been detrimental for its fleeting NCAA Tournament hopes.

“I think it has nothing to do with it,” Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury said. “We have to go home and beat Tennessee because that’s the only game that matters right now.”

Waller had a lot to do with it, hitting 6-of-11 3-pointers to finish with a team-high 22 points. He sunk his first shot of the game and nailed his last, a deep 3 from the corner with 2:43 to play, which put Auburn up 8 and served as the final answer to Mississippi State’s last rally of the game.

Over the past four games, Waller has averaged 26.5 points and is 27-of-42 from 3-point range.

“He’s been unbelievable shooting the basketball,” Lebo said. “We’ll continue to ride him for as long as we can.”

Knox came in a close second behind Waller with 21 points, but had a much taller task to deal with on offense and defense against Jarvis
Varnado, the NCAA’s all-time blocks leader. He overachieved at both ends, imposing an unmatched physical presence in the key, getting

Varnado in foul trouble and making some key free throws to finish 1 point shy of his career high.

On defense, Knox stood tough enough against Varnado, who finished with 14 points.

to Chris Porter

and Tay Waller, Lots of memories abound in the old BEMC

“He usually plays more physical than he did tonight,” Knox said. “On offense, I went straight at him.”

Reed and Hargrove, both of whom spent all four years at Auburn, and each of whom have had their ups and downs this season, were solid, scoring 19 and 16 points, respectively.

Hargrove had one of the bigger baskets of the game, immediately answering a Dee Bost 3-pointer, which tied the game, 65-65, with 9 minutes to play. A Reed 3-pointer on the following possession put even more distance between the teams and set up a celebratory finish.

Sophomore Frankie Sullivan had the final 2 Auburn points in the building on two free throws, and Hargrove launched the game ball into the crowd as the final horn sounded on the building’s final game.

“We didn’t play the whole season like we wanted to, but it was great to finish like this,” Knox said. “To send off the coliseum like this felt real good.”

agribble@oanow.com | 737-2561

A pair of six-run fourth innings gave Auburn just enough of a cushion to earn 7-6 wins in both games of a doubleheader with Davidson on Wednesday at Plainsman Park.

Austin Hubbard earned a save and a win on the afternoon, while Cory Luckie returned to a starting spot for the first time since 2008 and responded by striking out a career-high nine hitters in a no decision.

“There is so much parity in college baseball, it doesn’t matter who you play. Davidson threw everything at us. They are well coached. They know how to play. We were fortunate to come away with wins in two tough ballgames,” Auburn head coach John Pawlowski said. “I think you learn a lot more about your ballclub when you are faced with some adversity.”

Building 6-1 leads during the fourth inning of both games, Auburn’s bullpen allowed Davidson to slowly chip away at its leads, getting the tying run to second in the top of the ninth with one out in the first game, and then loading the bases in the top of the ninth after tying it in the eighth inning of Game 2.

Both times Austin Hubbard was needed to hold off Davidson (6-4), throwing the final 1 1/3 innings in both games, earning the save in Game 1 and the win in Game 2.

Brian Fletcher extended his hitting streak to a career-high 13 games with a fourth-inning single in both games.

The reigning National Hitter of the Week also collected two RBI on the afternoon to up his season total to 19.

Youth camp to be held Sunday
The Auburn staff will host its annual youth coaches clinic Sunday approximately 45 minutes following the Tigers’ 1 p.m. game against Miami (Ohio). All youth baseball coaches are invited to attend.

For more information,  e-mail the Auburn University baseball office at aubases@auburn.edu.

So long Bearded Eaves

As much as coaches, players and pretty much everyone else in the Auburn athletic department have talked excitedly about the new Auburn Arena, it likely doesn’t even sniff the buzz that took over the campus more than 40 years ago.

Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum certainly isn’t “The Barn.”

“You didn’t know which board to jump off of,” former Auburn forward Bill Alexander said. “In that Old Barn, you had special boards where, boy, you could really jump off them.”

The upkeep of Auburn’s 41-year-old arena maybe hasn’t been up to snuff with some of its counterparts around the league, but it’s safe to say DeWayne Reed and the rest of Auburn’s players won’t get an extra boost from a favorite patch of wood in tonight’s final game at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

The game, which pits Auburn in an important SEC matchup with Mississippi State, will be the undercard to all the memories shared, momentous occasions remembered, famous faces in attendance and overall nostalgia oozed from tonight’s ceremonies.

“This place is special,” former women’s basketball coach Joe Ciampi said. “This is home.”

‘Everything about it was unique’

“The Barn” was intimate, sure.

The homecourt advantage Auburn had inside the old Auburn Sports Arena was so good that certain SEC coaches, namely Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp, dreaded making the trek into town to play before 2,500 raucous fans.

“The Barn was special,” said Keith Bagwell, Auburn’s director of facilities who has seen every Auburn basketball game since 1960. “Everything about it was unique. It was sad day when that place burned down. I’m sure it wouldn’t be here now, but it was a sad day.”

All that fun didn’t match Auburn’s necessity or desire for a brand new, multi-purpose arena.

After years of mulling potential possibilities, the plan came together in 1965, when the Alabama State Legislature approved of its construction.

The total bill would be $6,033,597, with $4.5 million coming from state funds, $685,597 from federal funds, $498,000 from university funds and $360,000 from the athletic department.

The current tab on the new Auburn Arena is slightly less than $92.5 million.

Slimmer price tag notwithstanding, the opening of 12,500-seat Memorial Coliseum had a significant impact not just at Auburn, but around the conference and eastern Alabama.

“So many things could be done in this facility that we certainly couldn’t do in Alumni Gym just because of space alone,” said Susan Nunnelly, former women’s basketball coach and current women’s PA announcer. “You had to go to Columbus or Montgomery for a facility that would seat that many.”

‘Come on in’
Alexander remembered the buildup to Auburn’s first game in its new palace as less than ceremonious.

“We were practicing in the Old Barn and they just got that thing ready and they said, ‘Hey, Y’all come on in and play tonight,’” Alexander said. “So we went over there and played.”

What happened shortly thereafter was the type of storybook material that still had Alexander and his teammate, Wally Tinker, buzzing on a teleconference with reporters Monday.

It was Jan. 11, 1969, and LSU was in town to help the Tigers open their new building. “Pistol” Pete Maravich, one of the greatest of all-time, was on the opposing bench, the equivalent of piling spoonfuls of whipped cream on top of an ice cream sundae for the already big-time event.

“Maravich brought in droves of people by himself,” Alexander said. “There was a lot of history made there in one night.”
There was just one minor snafu: The lower-bowl bleachers hadn’t arrived yet, forcing a number of attendees with reserved seats to either find a seat elsewhere or listen to the game on the radio.

Pictures of the game depict a Roman Coliseum atmosphere, with the closest fans seated 15 feet above the floor.

That was about all that went wrong for Auburn on that night.

Alexander won the opening tip for the Tigers and Tinker soon scored the first basket.

“Wally Tinker was the epitome of a teammate that any person could ever have in college basketball because he was the most unselfish player we had on our team,” Alexander said. “It was very fitting that Wally made the first basket.”

The rest of Tinker’s night wasn’t as easy. He had Maravich to worry about on defense.

Right before halftime, Tinker bent to his knees at the foul line, panting and covered in sweat, before he delivered a quip to Maravich.
“I looked over at him and told him we were going to have to slow down,” Tinker said. “He looked at me and said, ‘We are just getting started.’”

Maravich didn’t stop doing what he did best on his way to 46 points, which still stands today as the most ever scored by an opposing player in the building’s history. It was just 19 points too little, as Auburn coasted to a 90-71 rout.

“We put a pretty good whipping on them,” Tinker said. “That was a thrill.”

A basketball legacy
From the Rolling Stones to the Harlem Globetrotters; from Elton John to Olivia Newton-John; from Bob Hope to Gerald Ford; from indoor track to collegiate wrestling, Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum has truly put the “multi” in multi-purpose.

Unlike the new Auburn Arena, it wasn’t built for basketball, but basketball will be the legacy it leaves behind.

Both the men’s and women’s teams have won significantly more than they lost in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum, and each took their turn
filling it past the liking of local fire marshalls.

In 1993, 12,620 fans packed into the arena to watch Auburn beat Alabama, 78-70. Sixteen years later, with the arena’s capacity shrunk to 10,500, more than 12,000 piled in to watch the Auburn women rout Tennessee.

Each team has clinched SEC Championships in the building, with the men’s only one since 1960 happening Feb. 17, 1999, on what many describe as the nuttiest night in the arena’s history.

“The fans were there, they were loud and they were rocking and rolling,” former point guard Doc Robinson said. “Everyone stayed. I don’t even think anyone left that night until we all left the coliseum.”

The men are 395-192 heading into tonight’s game. The women, after their upset victory Sunday over No. 14 Kentucky, finished 349-72, aided largely by a 68-game winning streak under Ciampi that ran through 1991.

Ciampi is the winningest coach in the building’s history, followed by men’s coaches Cliff Ellis and Sonny Smith.

“I can sip some Grey Goose and talk to Sonny and Cliff and everybody else and be on top of the mountain,” Ciampi joked. “Sonny and I will probably rip one another (tonight), but it’s a good feeling knowing that you’ve accomplished something in an era of 25 years.”

Weathering the storm
For how much it’s seen, how diverse of events it’s hosted, Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum has aged with grace, Nunnelly said.

“It has weathered the storm mighty well,” she said. “It’s been a long time, especially with the use it’s gotten. It’s a facility that still can be used for a while until they decide to do something with it.”

The building can’t be remembered, though, without bringing up a few of its shortcomings, the primary impetus to move down the street into a state-of-art facility.

From its first days of its existence to today, there’s been something about the arena that has elicited some sort of gripe.

Its bland, outward appearance can be attributed to the era it was constructed in — a 10-year stretch that certainly won’t be considered golden by stadium architects of today. Practicality and cost superseded aesthetics from the mid-60s to mid-70s across the entire sports spectrum.

Concrete, and lots of it, was used to build the era’s stadiums and arenas, most of which — like BEMC — have been weeded out and replaced.

Inside today, there are exposed pipes, walls with chipped paint, a video scoreboard that frequently displays burnt-out, black boxes and an old-fashioned scale that might have pre-dated “The Barn.” The wooden basketball court, though, is as new as any in the conference, an addition at the beginning of the Jeff Lebo era.

It’s come a long way from the synthetic, Tartan surface that originally served as the thin barrier between players’ feet and cement.

Like Astroturf, Tartan floors were a hot trend of the ’60s and ’70s that later proved highly detrimental to athletes’ safety.

“It drove our feet up into our knees,” Alexander said.

Perception has been the arena’s biggest enemy, Smith said, as a number of outside writers, fans and talking heads have ripped its supposed non-existent homecourt advantage.

“It’s not that Beard-Eaves is a bad place to play basketball,” Smith said. “The perception is there that it is a bad place even though it isn’t, that it’s too old.”

Moving forward
Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum will not only be old next season, but it will be without a purpose.

There have been multiple ideas floated for the arena’s future, but nothing has been made official. Few, if any, of the plans involve the arena remaining upright.

“I’ve known this building longer than I’ve known my wife,” Bagwell said. “But, it’s time.”

Lebo and women’s coach Nell Fortner have both repeatedly expressed their excitement to move into their new digs, and have lamented how much it will improve Auburn’s basketball program, specifically when it comes to recruiting.

Players, too, have shed few tears, as a building that has been constructed specifically for their sport will soon be a place they call home.

Even players like Tinker and Alexander don’t go any farther than saying tonight’s game will be bittersweet.

The future is just too promising to overlook.

“It is an exciting day for Auburn basketball to be able to go into an arena like this,” Alexander said. “This is a new day.”

agribble@oanow.com | 737-2561

Auburn and Davidson will play a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. today at Plainsman Park. The first game will be a makeup after Tuesday night’s game was postponed because of weather.

Auburn’s Brian Fletcher, the reigning SEC Player of the Week, was honored again Tuesday, as the National Collegiate Baseball Writers
Association (NCBWA) named him the National Hitter of the Week. Fletcher hit .636 (7-for-11) with a 1.545 slugging percentage in last weekend’s Auburn Classic.

Junior catcher Tony Caldwell also received and honor Tuesday, being named to the initial watch list for the 2010 Coleman Company-Johnny Bench Award.

Softball’s game vs. Michigan canceled
The Auburn softball game against No. 7 Michigan was canceled Tuesday afternoon due to rain and cold weather. The Tigers and Wolverines will not make up the game.

The Tigers will next return to play when they host the War Eagle Classic tournament, running Friday-Sunday at Jane B. Moore Field.

Auburn welcomes Louisiana Tech, Valparaiso, Gardner-Webb and Tennessee State.