SEC Basketball Saturday: Auburn clinches title, Alabama collapses

By Chris Marler

The saying all basketball fans have been waiting to hear this season, “This is March.” It took one day for the best month of basketball to deliver, and it delivered in a huge way. Here’s the SEC Saturday basketball recap.

Auburn wins the SEC Regular season Title 

Auburn departed Kentucky with a dominant victory over a top-20 Wildcats team. When they got on the plane, they had clinched at least a share of the SEC regular season title. By the time they landed, they got to watch their arch rival lose on a last second three to Tennessee, giving them the outright title. One could argue that Auburn not only had the best Saturday of the year so far, but they also may have had the best flying experience of anyone this year. 

That last one feels especially true.

First win in Rupp since ‘88 ✅
SEC Champs ✅
Dylan All-Time Wins ✅
Yesterday was a good day ✅ pic.twitter.com/Ni9DsP2DkJ

— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) March 2, 2025

Dropping the Ball and the feed 

Auburn went to Rupp Arena in the midst of a cold streak in Lexington, which is putting it mildly. The Tigers had lost 20 in a row on the road against UK and hadn’t won in that building since 1988. Auburn walked in and ran away with Sunday’s game early. It got so bad that by the 12-minute mark in the second half, the feed cut out completely. 

Auburn hadn’t appeared on ABC since 1995. The highly anticipated showdown took an unexpected turn when ABC and Kentucky mishandled the broadcast feed, creating one of the more confusing moments for sports fans in quite some time.

Kentucky really said “Y’all haven’t seen us lose to Auburn in this building in 37 years and you ain’t gonna see it today either.”

— Chris Marler (@VernDumbquist) March 1, 2025

Tennessee and Alabama delivered, Nate Oats did not

Alabama did everything they had to do to beat Tennessee on the road. It was a No. 5 versus No. 6 matchup, and the first of three consecutive games against top five teams from Alabama to close the regular season. Alabama led almost the entire game. 

In fact, they led by four with :36 seconds left. 

They lost by three.

Alabama had every opportunity to win the game against Tennessee. However, shooting 65% from the free-throw line, committing 21 fouls, turning the ball over 12 times, failing to inbound within five seconds, and the head coach not calling a timeout in the moment—aren’t exactly a recipe for winning basketball.

“I was not good for the last 30 seconds today. I feel like I failed these guys.” – Nate Oats after Alabama’s loss at Tennessee pic.twitter.com/VuDclhSrjU

— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) March 2, 2025

Bubble Team self-destruction 

There were four SEC teams on the tournament bubble going into Saturday—Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and Georgia. Three of those four teams went on the road and they went a combined 1-3. To make things worse, the losses came by an average of nearly 13 points. 

Georgia was the lone winner from the bubble teams this week. Joe Lunardi even said they may have had one of the best weeks of any bubble team in college basketball history, after beating No. 3 Florida at home and Texas on the road. 

The good news is, despite the awful on court performance, three of the four teams are still projected to get into the tournament.

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has joined the broadcast. Said if Georgia keeps things up and finishes this impressive win over Texas then they’ll have had one of the best weeks he’s ever seen from a bubble team

— Graham Coffey (@GrahamCoffeyDC) March 2, 2025

What happened to Texas A&M?

Texas A&M felt like they were on the cusp of being on the one seed line just a few weeks ago. Now they’ve lost four in a row. The shooting has gone to be with Jimbo Fisher. Losing to Florida on the road is understandable, as the Gators are one of the best teams in the country. However, losing by 19 to them feels unacceptable. Additionally, the fact that only one of their four consecutive losses was decided by seven points or fewer is concerning. 

There’s not a ton of time to panic as the Aggies welcome Auburn to College Station on Tuesday. That being said, a win over the Tigers followed by a win at LSU would certainly get the vibes right before postseason play

Read more of our SEC coverage here.