Unless Alabama wins at Auburn on Saturday, they are locked in as a 2 seed for the NCAA Tournament. Which considering how great the 8/9 seed line is this year (Gonzaga, UCONN, BYU, Illinois), it may not be a terrible thing to be there. They are still 6th in NET, 6th in KenPom, 3rd in offense and 39th in defense, and have a top 5 toughest strength of schedule. They are also 9-7 in Quad 1 games, 8-0 in quad 2, and 6-0 in Q3 and 4. They have a very very strong resume, but they have lost 4 of 6 games (all against top 12 KenPom teams). They are also locked in to a double bye in the SEC Tournament, as likely a 4 seed unless they defeat Auburn on Saturday.
This team is far better than last years team. No questions asked. If you remember, last years team was in the 90's in defense, so this team is tremendously better on that end. After they gave up 110 to Missouri, they followed it up with three straight great defensive outings against UK, Miss St, and Kentucky before last nights game. If this team wants to go deep, its not going to be it's defense that will be the deciding factor though, it will be it's offense. Hardly any teams in the country can score with Alabama, but against these better defensive teams they might face like Texas Tech or Houston, they have to be able to manufacture offense to offset it's defensive struggles at times.
I'm still very confident this team will make it's third straight sweet 16, and anything after that is up in the air. But i'll take a second weekend trip every year no questions asked what happens after that.
This team is far better than last years team. No questions asked. If you remember, last years team was in the 90's in defense, so this team is tremendously better on that end. After they gave up 110 to Missouri, they followed it up with three straight great defensive outings against UK, Miss St, and Kentucky before last nights game. If this team wants to go deep, its not going to be it's defense that will be the deciding factor though, it will be it's offense. Hardly any teams in the country can score with Alabama, but against these better defensive teams they might face like Texas Tech or Houston, they have to be able to manufacture offense to offset it's defensive struggles at times.
I'm still very confident this team will make it's third straight sweet 16, and anything after that is up in the air. But i'll take a second weekend trip every year no questions asked what happens after that.
