Alabama Basketball: Jay Bilas calls Tide a Final Four contender

Alabama Basketball: College basketball expert, Jay Bilas says the Crimson Tide is one of the new ‘bloods’ and has a chance to make the Final Four.

It is a head-spinning time for Alabama Basketball. Crimson Tide fans are focused on a 10-game winning streak and NCAA Tournament seed. While not unprecedented, such conversations have been rare for too long.

The college basketball world is taking notice and it could be Alabama basketball fans are not yet seeing the big picture. Nate Oats’ Alabama Crimson Tide team could be a Final Four team. So says, television analyst and unquestioned college basketball expert, Jay Bilas.

Bilas was interviewed on the Paul Finebaum Show Thursday and given the Tide’s NCAA history, his praise of Alabama Basketball was stunning. For the few who don’t know Bilas, he was a Duke star in the late 1980s, is a practicing attorney, an author and a television analyst. It would be hard to identify anyone who knows college basketball better than Bilas.

Speaking of the Crimson Tide and the NCAA Tournament, Bilas said,

"I think Alabama is sort of in the second tier, a group of teams that can not only make it to a Final Four, but they can sneak through and win it… I think you have to start talking about teams like Alabama, Florida State, you know we’ve talked about Michigan and Villanova … I would put Alabama up there with Florida State as sort of the new bloods that are better than the Blue Bloods this year and have an absolute chance to do something special."

Alabama Crimson Tide fans well versed in the program’s history must admit, no national commentator the stature of Bilas has ever described a Tide team a Final Four contender in January. Spinning March hype, others may have suggested the 1976 and 2004 teams had Final Four potential. No serious source has ever said it in January.

Check out what else Bilas said about the Crimson Tide.

"Alabama is really good and they play a great style because they get up and down the floor. They stretch the floor because they can shoot from just about every position. So they do take and make a lot of threes … it’s just a joy to watch them play, and they are much better defensively than they get credit for … Herbert Jones should be talked about for SEC Player of the Year."

What a time to be an Alabama basketball fan. The Tide plays highly ranked Oklahoma Saturday morning in Norman, OK.

COVID-19 continues to disrupt college basketball. Saturday’s Texas at Kentucky game has been canceled due to virus issues inside the Kentucky basketball program.