📍 Auburn, Alabama
🏀 Home of Auburn Tigers basketball

Auburn University is slowly becoming a basketball school, with the success and prowess of the hoopin’ Tigers beginning to exceed that of the renowned football team. In the shadow of the immense Jordan-Hare Stadium, Auburn basketball’s dominant performances at Neville Arena have become perhaps the most exciting ticket on The Plains. Although much of their prosperity has come in recent years, the history of Auburn Tiger basketball goes back more than a century.

The Tigers’ basketball program was conceived in 1906, getting off to an extremely slow start and not appearing in any national postseason tournaments until their first dance in March Madness in 1984. Auburn then won their first SEC Tournament title in 1985 and would go on to advance as far as the Sweet Sixteen that year. The Tigers have had on- and off-again success ever since, with the program’s biggest accomplishment being their trip to the Final Four in 2019. There, they lost to the Virginia Cavaliers, the eventual national champion, by a single point.

For 30 years, the team played at Alumni Gymnasium, until moving to Auburn Sports Arena in 1946. Although they once again moved into a new venue in 1969, the Sports Arena stood for another 27 years before going up in a tragically infamous blaze during the Auburn-LSU football game in 1996. Beard–Eaves–Memorial Coliseum – the longest serving home of the Tigers at 42 seasons – saw the rise of the team as a dominant force in the SEC. The Coliseum still stands today, just across the street from Neville Arena, which opened in 2010.

The main entrance of the arena features a statue of perhaps the most notable player in Tiger history, the one and only Charles Barkley. Barkley, who played on the Plains from 1981-84, was vital to helping Auburn reach their first-ever NCAA Tournament during his final season. Unfortunately, the team dropped their first round matchup against Richmond, 71-72, in what would be Barkley’s final game of his college career. He would go on to become a major star in the NBA, playing for the Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets. He was an 11-time NBA All-Star and later, an extremely successful television analyst.

Neville Arena features many premium club areas, offering only the most faithful Tiger fans a posh gameday experience, with unlimited free food and fancy dining areas. However, those who aren’t donors or high-profile individuals also have some amazing things to look forward to. The sleek Bodda Getta Brews area has interactive screens that allow fans to explore the annals of Auburn athletics as well as displays of Tiger mascots both past and present. Affronting this social area, dozen or so moody blue-lit exhibits showcase memorabilia and highlights the crowning achievements of every Auburn athletic program.

Neville Arena is a bonafide basketball madhouse. With just over 9,000 seats, the arena is often sold out and rocking, no matter the opponent. The massive student section, nicknamed “The Jungle”, surrounds three sides of the court and puts students right on top of the players. Throughout the game, they attempt to intimidate the visiting team with their antics and earsplitting chants. Even fans in the upper level are not far from the action, due to the steep pitch of the seats and overall architecture of the arena. This overwhelming atmosphere makes Auburn one of the toughest places to play in all of college basketball.

While Kansas or Kentucky might come to mind first when discussing “best college basketball atmospheres”, Auburn is certainly a top 5 contender for this title. When gameday comes to east Alabama, the cheers of several thousand rowdy Tiger fans will surely echo across the Loveliest Village on the Plains.