When designing Neville Arena, there had to be some thought of using the new facility to create a basketball environment that rivaled that of Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium or Kansas' Allen Fieldhouse. Those places are unrivaled in their history and home-crowd atmospheres.

To the architects of Auburn's 14-year-old arena: well done. But it took more than surrounding the playing floor with the student section. It took a buy-in from the Tigers in Bruce Pearl, the fan base to buy into him and the program, and now, well, teams dread coming to the Plains.

South Carolina got hit with the tsunami of noise on Wednesday night—same as Alabama the week before. Kentucky and College GameDay will be greeted in the same fashion on Saturday.

"The Jungle is The Jungle," Johni Broome said after Wednesday's 40-point rout of the Gamecocks.

Broadcasters now love coming to Neville Arena, something that seemed preposterous in the first few years of the place's history. ESPN's Jay Bilas, who played in Cameron Indoor as a Blue Devil, and the rest of the GameDay crew have made Auburn an annual stop for the show, noting the atmosphere and support that comes with the nation's loudest roar.

On Wednesday night, everything was clicking. Hugh Freeze and Bo Jackson were right in the middle of The Jungle, willing Pearl's side as they blasted the No. 11 Gamecocks back to Columbia. Fresh off their worst game of the year, the Tigers shot 61 percent from the floor, although it seemed more like 95 percent. The game was over by halftime, a 50-28 score that Auburn could have rested on, but 51 points in the second half gave the team some history: the biggest win margin-wise ever over a ranked opponent.

The 1996 Chicago Bulls would have had trouble in Neville Arena on Wednesday. Heck, the 1992 Dream Team may have struggled. That's because of an environment that has become one of the best in college basketball, if not the best.

Everyone wants to experience it, as evidenced by ticket prices. Currently, on SeatGeek, the cheapest standing-room-only ticket for Saturday's game against Kentucky is a whopping $417. That's not because of the Wildcats, even if they want to think that. And Bronny James isn't coming to town again, as much as the national media wants to credit the USC player for the line of students waiting to get in to see Auburn play.

No, this is all Auburn. Or, if you will, just Auburn being Auburn. People who love college basketball now have Neville Arena on their bucket list. It's become an event, not just a game. When Jaylin Williams or Tre Donaldson break away for an emphatic dunk, ears start ringing. When K.D. Johnson forces a turnover and does one of his patented K.D. faces, the roof seems on the verge of coming off. And when Dylan Cardwell hams it up after a block or dunk, decibel levels rise to another standard.

Auburn had the correct vision when replacing Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum with Neville Arena, but it is the support of the students and fans that have turned it into a mecca of college basketball.

The standard is the standard, right? Nah. The Jungle is the standard. The Jungle is The Jungle.