What does Alabama State have for an NCAA Tournament encore? ‘Give it our all’

The Alabama State started off March Madness with a play that will likely be a part of the CBS “One Shining Moment” montage at the end of the NCAA Tournament.

The No. 16 seed Hornets hope to add another clip to their profile. They’ll face South Region No. 1 seed Auburn on Thursday, March 20, at 2:50 p.m. in Lexington, Kentucky.

ASU is ready for the challenge at hand against the Tigers and won’t change too much of their usual preparation.

“Our guys, we’re just going to have fun with this. We haven’t been to the dance at Alabama State since 2011, and we win a game first time in school history,” Hornets head coach Tony Madlock said. “We’re just going to enjoy this moment. Nothing is going to damper this moment for us. We’re going to have fun, enjoy it, and fly around and have fun.”

“The prep doesn’t change. We stick to what we do, film, practice, treatment, whatever we do. Just because we’re playing the No. 1 seed, we’re not going to change anything,” ASU guard C.J. Hines said. “We’re just going to go out there and compete, fight, and give it our all.”

There’s plenty of history between the SWAC champion Hornets and Auburn; Madlock served as an assistant for four seasons at AU prior to taking over the Alabama State program in 2022. These two teams played a regular-season matchup in December 2023. Auburn won that game 82-62.

“That game was a good game last year,” Hines remembered. “We played right before Christmas. And we didn’t get the outcome that we wanted. I remember us losing. But I’m just excited for the opportunity that we have to play them again.”

“I actually watched that game this morning early, so I got a chance to relive some of that,” Madlock said. “They’re a really good team, again. I think they’re better this year than they were last year.”

The Hornets are also better this year, and the players attribute their growth to their coach’s teachings.

“Even when he was playing, he was a dog on the court as well, and it’s kinda just rubbed off on us,” said guard Amarr Knox, the hero of Wednesday’s First Four game. “We come to fight every single day, no matter who we playin’, try to do whatever it takes to win the game.”

“Coach Madlock, he does a great job encouraging us, just pushing us to be great, be dogs, just be fearless on the court,” Hines added. “And that helped us, helped the team. We fed off that, and we were just able to win and be hungry.”

Madlock is excited about the university’s opportunity to teach the nation about HBCU basketball.

“It means a lot. It means a lot for the state of Alabama,” Madlock said of playing Auburn, roughly an hour northeast of Montgomery. “You’re represented in the NCAA Tournament, with some really good schools. A lot of things that people don’t know, they’re going to hear about HBCUs, that normally they would not know about Alabama State University. It’s been all over the media, so that is the type of thing that we like to be heard about our university, all positive things, so we’re really excited about that.”