After win over Alabama, Auburn’s Jaylin Williams sure has a story to tell (2024)

Auburn fifth-year senior Jaylin Williams wanted Wednesday night’s game against Alabama to be one he could proudly tell his kids about years from now.

“In, like, 20 years, you can say, ‘I beat them my last year,’” Williams said of the Crimson Tide the Tuesday heading into the Alabama-Auburn rematch. “That would be pretty cool to tell my kids some day.”

For Williams, who coming into Wednesday night’s matchup had lost his last three times out against Alabama, a win against “that team up north” was all he was looking for. That was the only story Williams was hoping to be able to tell 20 years from now — anything else was extra.

And against the Crimson Tide Wednesday night, the extras just kept coming and coming, adding to Williams’ future story. Now, when story time finally rolls around, Williams will have to ask himself where he wants to start, because he’s got lots of options.

If he wants to, Williams can have his story start before tipoff, when he was recognized for his 1,000th career point in front of a rowdy home crowd. Williams scored his 1,000th career point way back in December with a 20-point effort against Alabama State.

Why Auburn waited until Feb. 7 to recognize him? Who knows. But for the sake of the argument, let’s just say it was something that needed to be included in his story.

But if Williams didn’t want to start there, his story could pick up just before halftime of Wednesday night’s game with Auburn ahead 53-41 with just over 33 seconds to play in the first half. After an Alabama miss, Auburn sophom*ore Tre Donaldson collected the rebound and quickly pushed the ball down the floor with a pass to Williams, who slammed home a windmill dunk to stretch Auburn’s lead out to 14.

“I think I almost broke my wrist,” Williams joked after the game.

Immediately following Williams’ dunk, which induced one of the loudest Neville Arena eruptions this season, Alabama head coach Nate Oats was forced to call a timeout in hopes of stopping some of the bleeding. Meanwhile, as the lights dimmed, Williams was quickly greeted by his teammates, who couldn’t believe the jam they just witnessed.

“I’m jealous,” Auburn junior center Johni Broome said after the game. “Listen, we talk about windmills all the time. I just learned how to windmill this year from him. I always want to get an in-game windmill.”

So when Williams tells the story of Feb. 7, 2024, he could start there — at the dunk that left his teammates green with envy.

Or, if he wanted to, Williams could fast forward to late in the second half.

The back half of Wednesday’s game wasn’t as exciting as the first. Instead of windmill dunks, there were a lot of free throws. Auburn attempted 34 free throws in the second half with Williams stepping to the line to try for eight from the charity stripe.

In the second half, Williams went 7-for-8 from the free throw line, bringing his night total to 9-for-10.

When Williams stepped to the line for the final time with just more than five minutes to play, he did so after having logged 24 points on the night, tying his career high, which came against Ole Miss on Jan. 6, 2021.

One make — let alone two makes — would give Williams a new career high. And two makes it was, giving Williams a 26-point night.

“I knew going into the game that (Nick) Pringle wasn’t 100% and some of those guys weren’t 100%. So I knew they were going to play smaller,” Williams said when asked about his big night. “It was just going in, I just I had to be patient, be more aggressive inside.”

And all together, with the pregame presentation, the first half windmill dunk, the new career high and the massive rivalry win at home — Williams has himself a pretty dang good story.

How he’ll start it? Well, that’s up to him.