Auburn and Houston will face off in a battle of top basketball programs Saturday, but one team apparently got a little too rowdy a little too early.

Reports say a pilot turned Auburn’s plane around due to an altercation between players.

WBRC in Birmingham said a plane that appeared to be carrying the Tigers’ men’s basketball team, traveling from Auburn to Houston, was diverted to Auburn several minutes into the flight after the pilot said there were “a bunch of basketball players fighting.”

The outlet reported that staff requested an emergency landing in Montgomery, but the plane instead landed in Auburn 40 minutes after takeoff.

The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did it confirm the incident.

Another report said no punches were thrown, but “guys got in each other’s faces.”

FlightAware shows a “diverted” flight left the Auburn airport at 2:50 p.m. local time and landed at 3:30 p.m. The site says the final flight from Auburn to Houston Friday was scheduled to leave at 6:55 p.m and land one hour and 53 minutes later.

Head coach Bruce Pearl of the Auburn Tigers during a game against the Texas A&M Aggies. (Michael Chang/Getty Images)

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Three other flights with the same route earlier in the day went on as planned, according to FlightAware.

Auburn is ranked 11th in the country, and the Cougars are No. 4. 

The Tigers were knocked out of the first round of the 2024 March Madness tournament as a No. 4 seed by No. 13 Yale. Houston was a No. 1 seed last year and fell to No. 4 Duke in the Sweet 16. 

An Auburn Tigers logo on a pair of shorts during the second half of the Legends Classic against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Nov. 16, 2023, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.   (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

In 2023, the Cougars, a No. 1 seed, knocked off No. 9 Auburn in the second round.

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There’s little room for error in dealing with the arm and legs of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame’s Steele Pizzella, the fastest quarterback in California.

There was an 80-yard touchdown run Friday night in which his 10.64-second 100-meter speed was electrifying. There were four touchdown passes, three to Luc Weaver.

And yet, top-seeded Simi Valley was able to pull out a 49-47 victory over the Knights in a first-round Southern Section Division 3 playoff opener because it had its own dominating offensive weapon in running back Brice Hawkins, who rushed for 202 yards and scored four touchdowns.

“It was a shootout, and they had the ball last,” Notre Dame coach Evan Yabu said.

Hawkins’ seven-yard run in the final minute earned Simi Valley (10-1) a first down to run out the clock and allowed the Pioneers to have another home game next week against La Habra.

Pizzella passed for 362 yards with two interceptions and ran for 173 yards in his final high school game before heading to Washington State. Simi Valley coach Jim Benkert knew all about Pizzella’s talents, because he was his coach for his first two years of high school.

“Oh my gosh,” Benkert said. “He’s special. He was making great plays with his feet, he was making great plays with his arm.”

Freshman cornerback Micah Hannah, who made an interception for Simi Valley on the Knights’ opening possession, was familiar with Pizzella because his older brother, Malachi, played with Pizzella at Simi Valley.

“He’s a great player,” Hannah said. “He’s real fast.”

Two lost fumbles and an interception in the first half by Simi Valley helped Notre Dame reach halftime trailing only 28-26. There were big plays by the Knights. Weaver had a 66-yard touchdown catch on broken coverage and a 25-yard touchdown. Caden Sliowski returned a fumble 65 yards for a touchdown. Pizzella ran 80 yards up the middle for another touchdown.

Hawkins scored three touchdowns in the first half for Simi Valley. Evan Rodriguez caught a 74-yard touchdown pass from Tripp Harrison to start the third quarter for the Pioneers, and that started a back-and-forth scoring duel. Weaver, a 6-foot-3 junior, was tough to cover. He had eight receptions for 196 yards.

A decisive moment came in the fourth quarter when Jayden Graham came up with an interception in the end zone for Simi Valley after miscommunication between Pizzella and his receiver with Simi Valley ahead 42-40. Hawkins scored on a two-yard run with 4:48 left.

The victory added to a remarkable accomplishment for a Simi Valley program that has beaten four private-school powers this season in the Knights, St. Bonaventure, Bishop Diego and Oaks Christian.

Simi Valley’s coaching staff is filled with prolific former head coaches. There’s Richard Fong (L.A. Baptist), 82-year-old Bob Richards (Thousand Oaks) and defensive coordinator Doug Semones (Kahuku, Hawaii), who lives in Puerto Rico but left his wife and 12 rescue dogs for three months to help Benkert. There’s also 88-year-old tight ends coach Ron Rescigno, a former head coach in New York.

Benkert has won six Southern Section titles at Westlake, Oaks Christian and Simi Valley, where he took over in 2018 and won the Division 6 title last season. He also was the offensive coordinator as a 25-year-old at Crespi in 1986 when the Celts, led by sophomore running back Russell White, won the Big Five Conference championship. “Give the ball to Russell,” was his simple play call, and it worked.

“They believe,” Benkert said of his current players.

The offseason is built for free-agent rankings. Our resident scout Keith Law compiled his top 50 free agents, and our resident GM Jim Bowden ranked his own top 45. A handful of our writers worked together to develop a collective Big Board of the market’s top 40 free agents.

But while rankings give a sense of the top talent available, we have to rearrange those lists to better understand where the market is deep and especially thin. Here, then, is a 26-man roster made entirely of free agents, illustrating the ample options for a needy rotation, bullpen or outfield corner, and the relative lack of options for almost any position up the middle.

Lineup

1. Willy Adames, SS
2. Juan Soto, RF
3. Pete Alonso, 1B
4. Anthony Santander, DH
5. Teoscar Hernández, LF
6. Alex Bregman, 3B
7. Gleyber Torres, 2B
8. Travis d’Arnaud, C
9. Harrison Bader, CF

Power in the middle

If you’re in the market for a slugger, this offseason has some options. Five of the 18 players who hit over 30 home runs this season are now free agents (Soto, Santander, Alonso, Hernández, Adames). Bregman also has some pop, and d’Arnaud was top 10 among catchers in slugging percentage. Among the free agents who didn’t make our starting lineup, Randal Grichuk, Joc Pederson, Tyler O’Neill and Kyle Higashioka each slugged at least .475 this year.

Depth at the corners

Our Big Board has enough corner outfielders near the top that we had to stick one of them at designated hitter just to fit them all in our lineup. Even then, there are enough everyday options that a second string could have plenty of impact, with Jurickson Profar (.839 OPS in 2024), Tyler O’Neill (.847) and Joc Pederson (.908) also ranking among our top 26 free agents. Another corner bat, first baseman Christian Walker (.803 OPS, three Gold Gloves), is No. 15 on our list.

Point of weakness

When Cody Bellinger chose to stay with the Chicago Cubs, the free-agent market lost its best center-field option. No other center fielder came particularly close to making our Big Board. For our Free Agents Team we chose Bader (coming off a 1.3 fWAR with the Mets) over other glove-first options Michael A. Taylor and Kiké Hernández. Center field is the market’s thinnest and weakest position, though the market isn’t particularly deep anywhere up the middle.

Jurickson Profar, ranked 17th on our Free Agent Big Board, was a first-time All-Star in 2024.  (Orlando Ramirez / Getty Images)

Bench

• Christian Walker, 1B
• Ha-Seong Kim, SS/2B
• Jurickson Profar, OF
• Danny Jansen, C

Thin in the infield

Positionally, this is not a great way to build a big-league bench. There’s no backup third baseman, no backup center fielder, and we’re not sure when our utility man is going to be ready (or how much his shoulder surgery will impact his ability to play shortstop). But the options — especially in the infield — are limited. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt ranks No. 29, but our Big Board includes no other infielders who aren’t listed here. The ones that came closest are Carlos Santana, José Iglesias, Yoán Moncada and Korean infielder Hye-seong Kim, and there are reasons to wonder about each of those in an everyday role. Second baseman Jorge Polanco could be interesting as a bounce-back candidate, and shortstop Paul DeJong has hit his way back onto the map after a good season.

Options behind the plate

There are no catchers on our Big Board, but d’Arnaud and Jansen did generate some bottom-of-the-list consideration, and the free-agent market also has Higashioka, Carson Kelly, Gary Sánchez, Elías Díaz, Jacob Stallings and others who have been solid big-league catchers in recent years. This market doesn’t necessarily have a standout everyday catcher, but those are few and far between in today’s game. For teams trying to build a catching duo, free agency might offer a few solutions.

Lefty bats

For our backup outfielder, we just went with the highest name remaining from the Big Board (Profar), but the market notably has a decent number of left-handed options that could be useful in a platoon. Joc Pederson (No. 26), Max Kepler (34), Alex Verdugo (38) and Michael Conforto (40) made our Big Board, and Jesse Winker just missed. Jason Heyward is also a free agent after providing some left-handed balance for a few contenders (the Dodgers and Astros) this past season.

Rotation

• Corbin Burnes, RHP
• Max Fried, LHP
• Blake Snell, RHP
• Jack Flaherty, RHP
• Sean Manaea, LHP

Impact starters 

Our Big Board’s top 12 includes six starting pitchers, but we didn’t include No. 3 Roki Sasaki in our All-Free Agent rotation because his situation is unique and some of his value is tied to his youth (23 years old) and the fact he’ll have to sign relatively cheap. Among proven big-league starters, this free-agent market includes four of the top 20 in ERA this past season. Burnes is unmistakably the top arm in the class, and the depth of No. 1 starters depends on whether teams believe the recent performances of Flaherty and Manaea are sustainable.

Next tier

Almost half of our top 25 free agents are mid-rotation-or-better arms — Nathan Eovaldi (No. 13 on the Big Board), Yusei Kikuchi (14), Shane Bieber (20), Walker Buehler (21), Luis Severino (23), and Nick Martinez (25) — but they come with a vast array of questions ranging from age to health to recent inconsistency. Bieber, in particular, is interesting given that he’s a Cy Young winner returning from Tommy John surgery and doesn’t turn 30 until the end of May. Martinez is 34, but he’s coming off a career year that saw him pitch well down the stretch as a full-time starter.

A question of age

The bottom of our Big Board is loaded with successful but uncertain starting pitchers. Tomoyuki Sugano, Matthew Boyd, José Quintana and Max Scherzer each rank between 35 and 39 on our list, and all will be aged between 34 and 40 next season. The first player who missed the cut for our Big Board was Charlie Morton, another stater who turns 41 later this month. A few spots below Morton was Justin Verlander, who’s almost 42. Sugano has never pitched in the majors. Boyd’s made 23 starts the past three years combined. Scherzer made just nine starts this season. Which can be trusted to carry a starter’s workload next year?

Bullpen

• Tanner Scott, LHP
• Jeff Hoffman, RHP
• Clay Holmes, RHP
• Carlos Estévez, RHP
• Blake Treinen, RHP
• Kirby Yates, RHP
• Kenley Jansen, RHP
• David Robertson, RHP

Impact at the top

Six of these eight relievers have been All-Stars within the past two seasons. The only exceptions are Treinen (who’s been an All-Star in the past and most recently was the top arm in the Dodgers’ postseason bullpen) and Robertson (another former All-Star who along with Yates, Scott, Jansen, Hoffman and Estévez ranked in the top 20 in Win Probability Added this season). Four other free agents — Chris Martin, Hector Neris, Paul Sewald and Lucas Sims — were top 10 in Win Probability Added in 2023. There’s potential for impact here.

Closers for hire

 This free-agent class is especially deep in pitchers with extensive closer experience. Eleven free agents — Jansen, Craig Kimbrel, Aroldis Chapman, Robertson, Will Smith, Neris, Yates, Sewald, Estévez, Treinen and Holmes — rank top 25 in saves among active players, and that list doesn’t include Scott, who’s had double-digit saves the past three years and made the All-Star team last year. Ninth-inning experience is readily available this winter.

From the left side

We chose our bullpen by picking every reliever on our Big Board, plus the two who came closest to making the cut. If we wanted a second lefty, though, Chapman and Danny Coulombe — surprisingly let go by the Orioles — would warrant some consideration. A.J. Minter, Tim Hill and Jalen Beeks are among the other free-agent lefties who could help balance a bullpen.

(Top photo of Pete Alonso: Harry How / Getty Images)