UAB is searching its second consecutive Conference USA Tournament championship on Saturday night.
It was already going to be a big night for the No. 9 Auburn Tigers.
Jelly Walker scored 32 points to lead UAB to the win over North Texas in the C-USA Tournament semifinals.
Friday in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament, Alabama won convincingly over the Mississippi State Bulldogs 72-49, remaining a perfect 3-0 against the Bulldogs on the season.
J'Mar Smith played in nine games for the Birmingham Stallions during the team's USFL championship season.
Malachi Holt-Bennett was a four-star prospect during his senior year at Fairfield High. He returns home after two seasons at Indiana.
Alabama A&M received 27 points from Messiah Thompson in a SWAC Tournament quarterfinal win.
UAB used 27 points and seven 3-pointers by Jordan "Jelly" Walker and excellent defense to beat Rice in the C-USA Tournament quarterfinals.
It was a different story from last year, but the same result for Auburn (20-12, 10-8 SEC), who has gone one-and-done in the SEC Tournament for the second year in a row, dropping a second-round matchup with Arkansas 76-73. The Razorbacks (20-12, 8-10 SEC) will move on and look to strengthen their NCAA Tournament resume, while the Tigers will look to regroup and prepare for the madness of March.
UAB, the No. 3 seed, needs to win three games in three days to earn another NCAA Tournament bid.
Kendall Johnson, a Tennessee State transfer, is trying to earn a spot on the UAB defense.
C-USA champion Florida Atlantic is the favorite on the men's side with North Texas and UAB close behind.
With SEC play just under two weeks away, Auburn has seven games in seven days and the non-conference test began with a Tuesday night matchup against UAB. The in-state rivals, and coached by former Auburn great Casey Dunn, have struggled as of late and put up a fight, but the Tigers were able to shut down the UAB offense and get some hits of their own, winning 4-1.
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated's Ross Dellenger, Alabama head football coach Nick Saban weighed in on the current name, image and likeness (NIL) setup for college athletes.
South Alabama pushed Louisiana to the end but the Ragin Cajuns escaped with a 71-66 win in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament final.
Brady Wilson and Trey Bedosky are the lone offensive linemen with career starts at UAB.
The UAB football team practiced for about three hours in shorts and helmets.
The University of Alabama men's basketball team heads into postseason play as the fourth-best team in the country and is still in solid position to be a one-seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Jelly Walker's basketball journey took him from Long Island to New Jersey to New Orleans to Birmingham. He's become a nationally-known player at UAB.
Over the weekend Alabama softball went 5-0 in the T-Mobile Crimson Classic led by their pitching dominating the opposing teams' hitters.
South Alabama is one win away from a conference tournament championship. West Alabama is the Gulf South Conference Tournament champ for the first time since 1982.
Alabama held on to the lead late to preserve a 9-7 win over UIC on Sunday to complete the three game sweep, and improve the Crimson Tide record to 12-0 on the season.
It was not always an easy weekend, but the Tigers secured the sweep of Lipscomb with an eighth inning three-run homer from Bryson Ware sealing the final Sunday victory. Auburn moves to 9-1-1 as the non-conference slate rolls along this week.
Hoover's girls finished off a three-peat and Hoover's boys team ran away from Central-Phenix City.
Samford's stay in the Southern Conference has a short life. The Bulldogs drop a quarterfinal game to Chattanooga.
What was already going to be a difficult meet became even stranger as severe weather forced what would have been another Top-15 Friday night heights matchup for the Auburn Tigers to be postponed to Saturday at 11 a.m. CST. Auburn head coach Jeff Graba had already planned on resting Sunisa Lee on some floor, but with the added delay, senior day coming up and the postseason right around the corner, Graba decided to rest Lee for the entire meet.
Auburn has faced must-win after must-win in the last month, and it has been more disappointment than excitement for the Tigers. Losers of eight of their last 11, the Tigers needed a win to not only go into the SEC Tournament with momentum, but also send the seniors out on top. Auburn(20-11, 10-8 SEC) did both, earning a crucial Quad 1 win, taking down No. 12 Tennessee(22-8, 11-7 SEC) 79-70.