Quite simply, Auburn Arena has been a nightmare for visiting Alabama teams recently. Its last win came in the final weeks of the Anthony Grant era with a few punishing losses since.

The Crimson Tide trailed by as many as 24 in a 90-71 loss last last year. It was an 84-64 blowout the year before with a full 9,121 crammed in both times. That leaves a sour taste entering the 7 p.m. CT Saturday return to the rivalry in Auburn.

“Of course,” Alabama sophomore Herbert Jones said. “You know, it’s the Iron Bowl for basketball. We’ll have a little bit more of an edge going into the game.”

Alabama (13-7, 4-3 SEC) is coming off a win No. 22 Mississippi State but is just 2-4 in road games this season. Auburn, once ranked in the top-10, lost three straight before slapping Missouri 92-58 on Wednesday. The Tigers are 14-6 overall with a 3-4 SEC mark.

Avery Johnson used a new method for preparing his group for a visit to the intimate setting in Auburn. Large speakers blasted sound at players in a Thursday afternoon practice in Tuscaloosa. It made players “uncomfortable” at first, Johnson said.

That was the point. The proximity to a hostile student section can play a factor in games like this.

“It can be a little intimidating if you haven’t been down there,” said Alabama forward Galin Smith, “but a lot of us have experience so we can help the younger guys who haven’t been there before.”

Tevin Mack hasn’t played at Auburn previously after transferring from Texas. The wildest environment he’s seen was at Kansas and he’s been warned about Auburn Arena.

“I heard it’s crazy,” Mack said. “I heard the student section is right there on the court around us and I heard they’d be saying dirty stuff to us before the game so we have to be prepared for that mentally. We’ll be ready for it.”

The Tigers jumped to a 14-2 lead last season when the walls seemed to close in on a young Alabama team. Alabama clawed back to within one before Auburn pulled away for the 19-point win.

“They’ve always tried to throw a knockout punch to us in the first four or five minutes of the game,” Johnson said, “and we haven’t responded well to it.”

Johnson said he had not pumped in the crowd noise into an Alabama practice previously. It was a method he saw football coaches using so he borrowed it for this preparation Mack said it noised sounded like a storm. It certainly helped, Jones said, but he doesn’t typically hear the distractions after the game starts.

“He tried to prepare us for it to be so loud,” Jones said. “So, yeah, I feel like we have a good chance of beating that team -- to beat them.”

Both teams could use a win in the race for postseason positioning. Alabama is No. 43 in the NET rankings used by the NCAA tournament selection committee. It is 2-4 against teams in Quadrant 1, where No. 24 Auburn falls. It’s the first of five remaining Quadrant 1 games left on the Tide schedule as it currently stands.

It’s also a rivalry game, as Johnson notes. Now in his fourth season at Alabama, he’s not afraid to acknowledge that.

“I think my first year when somebody asked me that question, I’d say ‘No, there’s no added pressure. It’s another game. It’s another SEC game,’” Johnson said. “I’ve graduated from that. It is added. We know who we’re playing. We know where we’re playing. We understand the rivalry more … So, this idea of me taking this cool, calm approach because I was new, a little wet behind the ears to this rivalry, I totally understand it now. We embrace the rivalry even more.”

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.