Buckle Up for the Auburn vs. Alabama Basketball Rivalry After Recruiting Coups

The Alabama/Auburn rivalry is undoubtedly one of the strongest in all of sports, but football dictates the national attention. Four consecutive football national championships from 2009-2012 and memorable plays like Chris Davis returning a missed field goal 109 yards for a last-second Auburn win tend to elicit strong emotions and memories from fans.

Yet, in the middle of August right before another season of championship aspirations and unlimited enthusiasm toward football, WJOX, the biggest sports radio station in Birmingham, was discussing basketball. With both Auburn and Alabama landing 5-star basketball commitments in consecutive days from a loaded class of 2016, it seems that basketball might the next rivalry to keep track of.

In short order, head coaches Bruce Pearl and Avery Johnson have done a lot of work to earn hoops fans in a gridiron state. Auburn landing 5-star shooting guard Mustapha Heron and Alabama getting 5-star shooting guard Terrance Ferguson has continued to give basketball momentum in the state.

Heron, a 6'5" native of Connecticut, is a powerfully built lefty who should contribute immediately to the Tigers' rebuilding project, while Ferguson, a 6'7" Texas native who is a freakish leaper with a feathery jumper, has a chance to make a major mark for the Crimson Tide. Auburn and Alabama landing 5-star recruits from out-of-state locations in a very deep class makes for an interesting development in the new arms race in SEC basketball recruiting.

Auburn hasn't made the NCAA tournament since 2003, but Heron believes Pearl will deliver results and also give him a basketball future. Since taking the Auburn job, Pearl has been desperately trying to land potential future pros to help him get back to the NCAA tournament, which he made in seven consecutive seasons before he was fired from Tennessee in 2011.

In a little over a year at Auburn, Pearl has done everything to draw attention to basketball that he can—including being mobbed at the airport upon his hiring at Auburn, on-campus dunk tanks and having a mini-party upon the finish of his NCAA show cause.

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Those stunts drew laughs and excitement, but landing a player of Heron's magnitude is the biggest thing Pearl has done yet at Auburn.

Sources around both the Auburn program and Heron's coaches told Bleacher Report that Heron being a unique recruit led him to a new region of the country, even though Auburn isn't necessarily known for its basketball pedigree.

Heron liked that Pearl and his coaching staff had brought in a deep and talented 2015 class, and he also saw Auburn's 2016 recruiting efforts featured a pair of commitments in 3-star guard Jared Harper and 3-star forward Anfernee McLemore. But Heron especially liked that Pearl and his staff were real about his weaknesses and how they were going to develop him to get to the next level.

Pearl, a man known for loud and outlandish public behavior that doesn't normally fit a head coach, quietly applied pressure to Heron's recruitment after the July live evaluation period and stole a 5-star prospect from the Northeast.

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"They had a detailed plan. They didn't recruit him, they coached him," Heron's AAU coach Andy Borman told Bleacher Report. "They told him his strengths, told him his weaknesses and they mapped out how they were going to make him better."

A surprise commitment on an unofficial visit came from Heron, and now the Tigers have the foundation for back-to-back strong classes firmly in place as they search for a big man to round out the 2016 haul.

As for Johnson and Alabama, he's only been on the job since April, but landing Ferguson in only four months means the Crimson Tide should be taken seriously.

Johnson earned his stripes in the NBA over 25 years as a veteran point guard, experienced head coach and television analyst before transitioning to the SEC. While some former NBA guys don't have the proper mentality to hit the recruiting trail hard, Johnson's son Avery Jr. recently went through the AAU circuit and the recruiting process by playing in the Nike EYBL with the Texas Titans. Johnson Jr. eventually committed to Texas A&M before transferring to Alabama this summer.

Armed with some knowledge of how modern recruiting works, Johnson was one of the most active head coaches on the trail in July as he relentlessly pursued Ferguson and his Mo Williams Elite team while also going to events like junior college showcases that most high-major head coaches don't bother to hit.

It's already paid off with a pledge from Ferguson, and now Johnson will have two or three more spots to work with in the 2016 class as Alabama is a finalist for 4-star wing Braxton Blackwell. They'll also continue to pursue big men like 4-star Tony Bradley and 5-star Marques Bolden to try to finish things up.

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When it comes to self-promotion, it's not like Johnson is shying away from hitting the road to see Alabama fans either. He might not be doing dunk tanks and parties like Pearl, but during the spring, Johnson hit the road with Nick Saban as they toured the South in support of the athletics department. Rolling around and meeting people with one of the most successful college football coaches of all time certainly didn't hurt Johnson's early reputation among Alabama supporters.

"Football is always going to reign supreme, but the basketball coverage has taken a step up. Both coaches have done a great job of promoting their respective programs," said Garrett Tucker of HoopSeen.com.

Tucker is one of many local media members seeing an increase in local basketball coverage for both programs since the arrival of the new head coaches, and things could just be heating up in the new Alabama/Auburn basketball arms race.

The 2017 recruiting class in Alabama looks very promising, and the group has some very talented players as both shooting guard John Petty and center Austin Wiley rank as consensus 5-star players. Other talented prospects like Garrison Brooks, Alex Reese and Jamal Johnson also emerged this summer from Alabama and rate as top-100 prospects from scouting services such as ESPN and 247Sports.

Heron and Ferguson committing to Auburn and Alabama, along with the SEC's recent success via Kentucky, means that 5-star prospects are starting to look at the league in a more serious light. With that increased recruiting attention has come more support from fans who are starting to pay attention to basketball.

Hearing full stadiums of fans yelling "Roll Tide" and "War Eagle" on Saturdays isn't any kind of new phenomenon, but it might be transitioning to basketball sooner than you think.

Recruiting ratings via 247Sports.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes and information were obtained firsthand.