Simply put, ‘The Jungle is The Jungle’

[aubiefifty 16,791]

 

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How does playing at home help Auburn basketball? Simply put, ‘The Jungle is The Jungle’

Published: Feb. 16, 2024, 6:30 a.m.

6–8 minutes

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Auburn junior Chad Baker-Mazara had trouble sleeping Halloween night knowing the next day he’d make his debut in an Auburn uniform in an exhibition matchup against Auburn University-Montgomery from Auburn’s Neville Arena.

“To be honest, I was really excited the whole day. Even last night, I couldn’t fall asleep, to be honest,” Baker-Mazara said after the exhibition game on Nov. 1. “Just really excited because all the older guys were telling me about how The Jungle is crazy.”

Before coming to Auburn, Baker-Mazara spent a season at Duquesne, a season at San Diego State and a season at Northwest Florida State College.

Needless to say, Baker-Mazara had never found himself in a position to play in front of a home crowd quite like Auburn’s.

But now that Baker-Mazara has had the opportunity to play in 13 games within the walls of Neville Arena, he’s learned why Auburn’s returning players made it a point to emphasize the intensity of The Jungle, which is the nickname for Auburn’s student section.

Meanwhile, the coaches of opposing teams that have waltzed into the Neville Arena – some as first-timers and others as returners – have consistently sang in the same tune when talking about Auburn’s playing environment.

On Nov. 29, Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young came into the Hokies’ meeting with the Tigers having previously visited Auburn three times during his stint as Wofford’s head coach in 2002, 2004 and 2006.

It’s worth noting all three of those games were played at the Tigers’ former home in Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum. Nonetheless, Young remembers it being nothing like what he experienced in November.

“Those three crowds wouldn’t come close to equaling that out there. What he’s done is quite remarkable,” Young said of Auburn’s home crowd and head coach Bruce Pearl.

The Tigers went on to beat the Hokies 74-57 that night as Auburn held good on its end of the bargain in this season’s ACC/SEC Challenge.

Following Auburn’s win over Virginia Tech was a road game at Appalachian State and a pair of neutral site matchups against Indiana and UNC-Asheville. When the Tigers finally returned home to Neville Arena on Dec. 17, it was for a highly anticipated matchup against Andy Enfield and the USC Trojans – or better yet Bronny James and the USC Trojans.

Tickets to Auburn’s game against USC were steep in price and hard to come by. Yet still, hours before tipoff, fans wrapped around Neville Arena in a showing Yahoo! Sports chalked up as the “Bronny effect.”

However, as Auburn fans sarcastically pointed out on social media, if that were the case, it must mean Bronny James plays on every team that’s come into Neville Arena this season – including Texas A&M, which visited Auburn on Jan. 9 in what was the 47th consecutive sellout at Neville Arena.

“I think the environment is like all that you want college basketball to be,” Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams said after Auburn beat Texas A&M 66-55 in the Tigers’ SEC home opener. “Everybody’s hollering at me and mad at the officials and as far as you can see people are standing up there. They’re here as soon as we get here.”

In some cases, Auburn fans are there well before the opponents – just ask the hundreds of students who camped outside of Neville Arena for more than 24 hours ahead of Auburn’s rematch against Alabama in the second game of the Iron Bowl of Basketball on Feb. 7.

For Alabama head coach Nate Oats, who has paid Neville Arena yearly visits since taking the helm of the Alabama program ahead of the 2020 season, he knew what kind of environment he and his team were walking into.

“I think it’s what makes college basketball college basketball — having the student section, you know, they’re rowdy, they get after it, they’re loud and they’re right on top of you,” Oats said ahead of Alabama’s visit to Auburn. “It’s hard to hear yourself even think, to get play calls called, it’s hard for the players to communicate on defense. It’s loud.”

Whether or not the lack of being able to communicate was to blame, the Crimson Tide’s defense surely struggled against the Tigers in Neville Arena as Auburn went on to blast Alabama 99-81 as the Tigers shot 42.2% from the field and went 40-for-50 from the free throw line.

Auburn’s win over Alabama on Feb. 7 the made for a tight race at the top of the SEC standings with Auburn, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee all fighting for the driver’s seat.

And after Auburn stumbled on the road and coughed up a loss to Florida, Pearl and the Tigers found themselves in a “must-win” situation when Lamont Paris and the South Carolina Gamecocks came to town Wednesday.

Coming into the game, South Carolina was tied for top of the SEC and was No. 1 in the conference in scoring defense having only allowed an average of 65 points per game.

However, that all proved no problem for the Tigers, who went on to pick apart the Gamecocks in a convincing 101-61 win, which ballooned Auburn’s margin of victory when playing at home to 22 points.

Read that again.

While Auburn has gone 13-0 from Neville Arena this season, the Tigers have beaten opponents by an average of 22 points.

And when dealing with a statistic like that, the words of Auburn junior Johni Broome might sum it up best.

“The Jungle is The Jungle,” Broome said after Auburn’s lopsided win over South Carolina. “I think it’s the best home court advantage in the country.”

The craziest part? We likely haven’t seen it at full force this season, but will come Saturday night when the 22nd-ranked Kentucky Wildcats and ESPN’s College Gameday come to town.

Auburn students started camping out ahead of Saturday’s game immediately following Wednesday’s win over South Carolina.

You read that right – the line of campers outside the student entrance of Neville Arena started forming more than 60 hours before Kentucky and Auburn tip off.

“When you got people, students, willing to camp out and watch us play that gives us confidence knowing that they’ve been waiting for us to come out and play well,” Broome added. “So we have to reward them in a way.”

Hopefully no one tells Chad Baker-Mazara because Auburn needs him getting sleep the night before.

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[gr82be 14,425]

Thanks @aubiefifty I check your articles daily and though I don’t watch the podcasts because I hate it when most of them seem like they are talking just to hear themselves talk. However I do like the articles. Love this one. 

[aubiefifty 16,791]

1 minute ago, gr82be said:

Thanks @aubiefifty I check your articles daily and though I don’t watch the podcasts because I hate it when most of them seem like they are talking just to hear themselves talk. However I do like the articles. Love this one. 

i understand.i do not watch hardly any of them myself i just post them for the folks that like them. and many days there are not written articles on football and youtube is all we have.

[WillMunny 1,378]

I'm 61 yo with about 60% hearing loss due to youthful carelessness of being around loud noises with no hearing protection.  I wonder how people who attend a lot of AU games at Neville will fare hearing-wise when they're my age.  Right now they don't care, because of course they're going to live and be healthy forever.  But I wonder.

I go to spin cycle classes 3 days per week and the young instructors there have the music so loud I have to wear hearing protectors (ear inserts) and can still hear every word they yell.  Even with 60% hearing loss.

I would like to know the decibel level of a typical crowd at Neville.

But it sure is good for wins...I love it from that standpoint.