BIRMINGHAM — It took lower than 5 minutes of clock time for The Feud to be aptly named.
l tangled with archrival n in an exhibition sport at Legacy Area Thursday, Oct. 23, and received 87-84 − and it didn't take lengthy for the tangling to go particular person. With the Tigers main 11-9 simply earlier than the primary media timeout, e ahead Keitenn Bristow and Auburn ahead Thomas Dowd, all 430 mixed kilos of them, hit the ground with a thud to battle for a rebound.
4 fingers wrestled for it, and after the whistle blew, not one of the 4 got here off the ball. Issues obtained chippy. Different gamers gathered and tangled a bit themselves. UA coach Nate Oats stepped straight into the commotion and supplied an earful to Auburn's Kevin Overton, the closest official and Auburn coach Steven Pearl, who additionally joined the fray. Within the aftermath, 4 technical fouls hit the scoresheet. No legit punches had been thrown, however neither group was there for niceties.
It was March Insanity-level depth, however in October. And a lovely factor.
A reasonably evenly cut up crowd went berserk, in fact, and it was no small gathering. Legacy Area's decrease bowl was packed, and the overwhelming majority of its higher deck was full (capability 17,654). They exploded with all the fervour these groups will engender once they meet twice within the forthcoming common season (at a Jan. 30, at Auburn March 6). They usually had been handled to a closely-contested battle that by no means lacked for an edge. Backwards and forwards they went, buying and selling baskets with 12 lead modifications, delivering some severe rivalry leisure.
They used to convey their soccer groups to Birmingham for a sport that was something however an exhibition, again when Iron Bowls made Legion Discipline tremble every year. And whereas there have been good causes for making Alabama-Auburn soccer a campus home-and-home collection, there was nothing fairly just like the 50-50 crowd cut up, at 80,000-plus, {that a} impartial web site created.
It's been 28 years for the reason that final Birmingham Iron Bowl, however right here in 2026, exhibition basketball will nonetheless pack a home with orange- and crimson-clad yellers and screamers.
Distinction that with the environment in a regular exhibition sport towards a weaker opponent − UA drew a number of thousand for a house exhibiting towards Furman two weeks in the past − and it's a no brainer to make this occasion annual. It makes an excessive amount of sense, and judging by the scale of the group, an excessive amount of cash.
Most of all, the gamers – at the very least on this first-edition run – handled it prefer it meant one thing to them. They pushed and scrapped and dove on the ground. They performed protection and threw elbows. And as Bristow and Dowd proved, they didn't thoughts getting testy, both.
They feuded at The Feud.
And there's no motive to not do it once more in 12 months.
Tuscaloosa Information columnist Chase Goodbread can also be the weekly co-host of Crimson Cowl TV on WVUA-23. Attain him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Comply with on X.com @chasegoodbread.
This text initially appeared on The Tuscaloosa Information: d
