It’s hard for No. 10 Alabama basketball not to get at least a little excited about the current state of affairs. The Crimson Tide is ranked in the top 10 for the first time in more than a dozen years and is off to its best start in conference play since 1956.
The excitement peaked Friday as Alabama was projected as a No. 1 seed in ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology. Of course, that was news to head coach Nate Oats, who had to be informed of the achievement during an afternoon Zoom call with reporters.
While appreciative of the praise, Oats doesn’t want to get carried away just yet, stating that it isn’t necessarily wise to start diving into projections more than a month before the tournament field will be selected.
“We just got to take care of it,” Oats said. “This stuff can all go out the window in a hurry with a couple of losses. If we just take care of one game at a time keep doing what we’ve been doing… Being a No. 1 seed, that’d be outstanding, like unbelievable. I don’t think anybody would have predicted that. To dwell on that today is probably distracting. Today we need to work on what we need to do to beat Missouri.”
While their head coach might have been unaware of the latest media hype, Alabama players didn’t have to be notified of Friday’s projection.
“We’ve seen it,” forward Juwan Gary said. “It’s a great feeling to be a projected No. 1 seed, but the job ain’t done yet. We’re going to keep playing our game, still continue to play as a team trying to get Ws. Just keep going and see what we’re going to do until the tournament comes up.”
In a time of the year when Alabama previously fretted over its chances of making the Big Dance, the Tide now finds itself as one of the belles of the ball.
Alabama currently sits at No. 7 in the NET rankings used by the NCAA tournament selection committee. According to TeamRankings.com, the Tide is a lock to make the NCAA Tournament with a 29 percent chance of earning an automatic bid and a 71 percent chance of earning an at-large selection. The website projects Alabama’s most tournament position to be a No. 2 seed, giving the Tide a 41.2 percent shot of attaining that spot. Alabama was also given a 16.7 percent chance of making the Final Four and a 2.8 percent chance of winning the national title.
While those projections are fun to ponder, Alabama is currently doing its best to remain grounded and focus on the task at hand.
“We really don’t pay attention to much on the outside noise,” guard John Petty Jr. said. “We just take every game one by one and keep getting better each time, so when March comes around and it’s tournament time we’re playing our best basketball.
Alabama’s next game is an important one. The Tide (15-4, 10-0 in the SEC) will put its perfect conference record on the line again Saturday at 11 a.m. CT as it travels to No. 18 Missouri (12-3, 5-3). The Tigers are currently tied with three other teams for second place in the SEC standings but are still four games behind first-place Alabama.
“We know how big of a game this is,” Petty said. “We know what kind of a team they are. So we’re just really locked in. Our preparation these last two days has been real good. I’d say guys are locked into more film, guys are studying more. We know how big of a game this is, so we’re going to treat it like that and try to play our best basketball.”
A win Saturday would be another sizable step toward Alabama locking down its first regular-season SEC title since 2002. Not only would a victory give the Tide a head-to-head advantage over the next six teams behind it in the conference standings, it would also serve as the last big hurdle in its SEC slate. Following the matchup against Missouri, Alabama’s next four games come against teams with losing records in conference play.
The matchup against Missouri is also important in that it would be a Quadrant 1 game, one of just a few remaining on the Tide’s regular-season schedule. Alabama is currently 5-1 against Quadrant 1 opponents and 5-2 against Quadrant 2 foes.
“We told them that this is the only time we play these guys. They’re in second place, and this is big,” Oats said. “A win Saturday would go a long way in the league championship race.”
It would also go a long way toward that other tournament in March. Although for now, Alabama is leaving saving that discussion for another time.
The excitement peaked Friday as Alabama was projected as a No. 1 seed in ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology. Of course, that was news to head coach Nate Oats, who had to be informed of the achievement during an afternoon Zoom call with reporters.
While appreciative of the praise, Oats doesn’t want to get carried away just yet, stating that it isn’t necessarily wise to start diving into projections more than a month before the tournament field will be selected.
“We just got to take care of it,” Oats said. “This stuff can all go out the window in a hurry with a couple of losses. If we just take care of one game at a time keep doing what we’ve been doing… Being a No. 1 seed, that’d be outstanding, like unbelievable. I don’t think anybody would have predicted that. To dwell on that today is probably distracting. Today we need to work on what we need to do to beat Missouri.”
While their head coach might have been unaware of the latest media hype, Alabama players didn’t have to be notified of Friday’s projection.
“We’ve seen it,” forward Juwan Gary said. “It’s a great feeling to be a projected No. 1 seed, but the job ain’t done yet. We’re going to keep playing our game, still continue to play as a team trying to get Ws. Just keep going and see what we’re going to do until the tournament comes up.”
In a time of the year when Alabama previously fretted over its chances of making the Big Dance, the Tide now finds itself as one of the belles of the ball.
Alabama currently sits at No. 7 in the NET rankings used by the NCAA tournament selection committee. According to TeamRankings.com, the Tide is a lock to make the NCAA Tournament with a 29 percent chance of earning an automatic bid and a 71 percent chance of earning an at-large selection. The website projects Alabama’s most tournament position to be a No. 2 seed, giving the Tide a 41.2 percent shot of attaining that spot. Alabama was also given a 16.7 percent chance of making the Final Four and a 2.8 percent chance of winning the national title.
While those projections are fun to ponder, Alabama is currently doing its best to remain grounded and focus on the task at hand.
“We really don’t pay attention to much on the outside noise,” guard John Petty Jr. said. “We just take every game one by one and keep getting better each time, so when March comes around and it’s tournament time we’re playing our best basketball.
Alabama’s next game is an important one. The Tide (15-4, 10-0 in the SEC) will put its perfect conference record on the line again Saturday at 11 a.m. CT as it travels to No. 18 Missouri (12-3, 5-3). The Tigers are currently tied with three other teams for second place in the SEC standings but are still four games behind first-place Alabama.
“We know how big of a game this is,” Petty said. “We know what kind of a team they are. So we’re just really locked in. Our preparation these last two days has been real good. I’d say guys are locked into more film, guys are studying more. We know how big of a game this is, so we’re going to treat it like that and try to play our best basketball.”
A win Saturday would be another sizable step toward Alabama locking down its first regular-season SEC title since 2002. Not only would a victory give the Tide a head-to-head advantage over the next six teams behind it in the conference standings, it would also serve as the last big hurdle in its SEC slate. Following the matchup against Missouri, Alabama’s next four games come against teams with losing records in conference play.
The matchup against Missouri is also important in that it would be a Quadrant 1 game, one of just a few remaining on the Tide’s regular-season schedule. Alabama is currently 5-1 against Quadrant 1 opponents and 5-2 against Quadrant 2 foes.
“We told them that this is the only time we play these guys. They’re in second place, and this is big,” Oats said. “A win Saturday would go a long way in the league championship race.”
It would also go a long way toward that other tournament in March. Although for now, Alabama is leaving saving that discussion for another time.
