Alabama No. 14 in AP's preseason top 25

[Tony_Tsoukalas]

For the first time in a decade, Alabama basketball will begin the season ranked in the Associated Press’ preseason top 25. The Crimson Tide was tabbed at No. 14 in this season’s poll which was released Monday.

The last time Alabama started the season ranked was in 2011 when it was ranked No. 19 in the preseason poll. The Tide went 21-12 that season, losing to Creighton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Last season, Alabama basketball finished 26-7, winning both the SEC regular-season title and the conference tournament. The Tide advanced to the Sweet 16 before being eliminated from the NCAA Tournament with a 88-78 overtime loss to UCLA.

Alabama is heading into its third season with head coach Nate Oats at the helm. The Tide returns its two leading scorers from last season in Jaden Shackelford (14.0 points per game) and Jahvon Quinerly (12.9 ppg). Alabama also brought in the No. 13 overall player in this year’s class in five-star point guard JD Davison.

The SEC has five teams ranked in the AP preseason top 25 including, No. 10 Kentucky, No. 14 Alabama, No. 16 Arkansas, No. 18 Tennessee and No. 22 Auburn. Other ranked teams on Alabama's regular-season schedule include No. 1 Gonzaga, No. 8 Baylor, No. 12 Memphis and No. 15 Houston.

Alabama will begin its season on Nov. 19 when it hosts Lousiana Tech.

AP Top 25 preseason poll​

1. Gonzaga (55)
2. UCLA (8)
3. Kansas
4. Villanova
5. Texas
6. Michigan
7. Purdue
8. Baylor
9. Duke
10. Kentucky
11. Illinois
12. Memphis
13. Oregon
14. Alabama
15. Houston
16. Arkansas
17. Ohio State
18. Tennessee
19. North Carolina
20. Florida State
21. Maryland
22. Auburn
23. St. Bonaventure
24. UConn
25. Virginia

 

[winin11]

For the first time in a decade, Alabama basketball will begin the season ranked in the Associated Press’ preseason top 25. The Crimson Tide was tabbed at No. 14 in this season’s poll which was released Monday.

The last time Alabama started the season ranked was in 2011 when it was ranked No. 19 in the preseason poll. The Tide went 21-12 that season, losing to Creighton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Last season, Alabama basketball finished 26-7, winning both the SEC regular-season title and the conference tournament. The Tide advanced to the Sweet 16 before being eliminated from the NCAA Tournament with a 88-78 overtime loss to UCLA.

Alabama is heading into its third season with head coach Nate Oats at the helm. The Tide returns its two leading scorers from last season in Jaden Shackelford (14.0 points per game) and Jahvon Quinerly (12.9 ppg). Alabama also brought in the No. 13 overall player in this year’s class in five-star point guard JD Davison.

The SEC has five teams ranked in the AP preseason top 25 including, No. 10 Kentucky, No. 14 Alabama, No. 16 Arkansas, No. 18 Tennessee and No. 22 Auburn. Other ranked teams on Alabama's regular-season schedule include No. 1 Gonzaga, No. 8 Baylor, No. 12 Memphis and No. 15 Houston.

Alabama will begin its season on Nov. 19 when it hosts Lousiana Tech.

AP Top 25 preseason poll​

1. Gonzaga (55)
2. UCLA (8)
3. Kansas
4. Villanova
5. Texas
6. Michigan
7. Purdue
8. Baylor
9. Duke
10. Kentucky
11. Illinois
12. Memphis
13. Oregon
14. Alabama
15. Houston
16. Arkansas
17. Ohio State
18. Tennessee
19. North Carolina
20. Florida State
21. Maryland
22. Auburn
23. St. Bonaventure
24. UConn
25. Virginia

Thanks Tony, it feels good to start off being ranked, but we have 3 game stretch of Gonzaga, Memphis and Houston that will show us where we really are.
We sure could use some practice nuggets and recruiting info from the Mod side.

 

[Codie B]

We have as rough a schedule as I can remember. Exciting, but it will be very tough to navigate. With this non conference schedule, the team won’t be given a whole lot of time to gel.

 

[anon_z8qxv7qt5719f]

This is Awesome!

 

[jtr4dad]

Thanks Tony, it feels good to start off being ranked, but we have 3 game stretch of Gonzaga, Memphis and Houston that will show us where we really are.
We sure could use some practice nuggets and recruiting info from the Mod side.

It's also very likely that we will play #3 Kansas in the finals of the Orlando tournament in November.

 

[TideFever]

Good to see this team thought of that highly before the season even begins but I can't help but feel it might have been better to have started a little further down the list. I know at the end of the day basketball polls are about the most useless thing in college sports given how many teams get in the tournament. But, for better or worse, it does frame the early season picture so if we live up to a top 15 ranking the interest will be off the chart for Bama bball.

On the other hand, early hype sells tickets and draws eyes on our games. So hopefully we have more than 5k for the Nov/Dec home games. Lately I've even had FOGs talk up basketball like they've been a Bama bball fan their whole life. They're assuming it's final 4 or bust though so that bandwagon will open up a bit if we stumble with a crazy tough early schedule.

 

[pfaud001]

You never know. Maybe we end up number 1.