50 years ago tonight, #6 Alabama at #10 Vanderbilt

While not on TV, it was covered by Sports Illustrated that week,which was a pretty big deal at the time. The Tide and Commodores,along with Tennessee had all tied for second in 1972-1973 behind Kentucky. Alabama's 83-77 win in Nashville (the Tide's first win in Nashville since 1953) kept Vandy from winning the title -- and playing the then "Mideast Regional" at home. And "home" was a big deal for the Commodores. With Memorial Gymnasium seating nearly 16,000 it was the largest basketball arena in the SEC (Rupp Arena wouldn't open until the 1976-1977 season).The game was a hard sellout ,even with students still on break, there was SRO.

Alabama played a brutal non-confernce schedule and came out 7-1 while Vandy played a good one with wins over eventual Final Four participant Kansas and win in Memphis against the prior year runner up Tigers.

The game featured great names and players from that period,Leon Douglas, Charles Cleveland and TR Dunn from Alabama, Jan van Breda Kolff and the "F-Troop" from Vanderbilt. They were coached by two of most underrated coaches in SEC history, CM Newton of Alabama and Roy Skinner of Vandy.

Alabama came out hot and took a 30-19 lead late in the first, but then Vandy got hot and tied them at 37 at halftime. After a back and forth period to start the second half, Alabama slowly took control at led 69-62 with under 3:00 left.

Vandy battled back and cut it to 72-70 with under a minute. While coming out of Alabama's version of the "Four Corners" Ray Odums missed a wide open layup that may have clinched it. Vandy,who let the nation in free throw shooting, had Butch Feher at the FT line. Feher made the first but missed the second. After a wild scramble with the ball going everywhere,Feher laid one in for a 73-72 Vandy lead with :12.

After a timeout Alabama came down and worked it to their best shooter, Charles Cleveland. Cleveland shot one from just outside the lane that boounced off the front of the rim. Douglas picked up the rebound but van Breda Kolff slapped it out of his hand and the clock ran out as the ball rolled towards mid court. Vandy won,73-72.

Even thought this was the conference opener Alabama and Vanderbilt were clearly the class of the SEC in 1974.In fact they would wind up sharing the SEC title with 15-3 SEC marks.Unfortunately for Alabama, Vandy won the Tuscaloosa game, 67-65 for the tiebreaker. This was the last year where the NCAA only permitted one team from a conference. Unlike 1973 when Alabama went to the NIT, Alabama hosted the 1974 Mideast Regional. The NCAA had a rule that if you hosted an NCAA tourney came you were precluded from the NIT,or the new CCA tourney.