Alabama Basketball: Tide needs to get over typical February hump

Alabama Basketball 14-4, with nine remaining regular-season games

Note: NCAA NET rankings through games of Jan. 31 are in parentheses.

• Feb. 3 – LSU in Tuscaloosa (39)
• Feb. 6 – at Missouri (30)
• Feb. 9 – at South Carolina (106)
• Feb. 13 – Georgia in Tuscaloosa (107)
• Feb. 17 – at Texas A&M (129)
• Feb. 20 – Vanderbilt in Tuscaloosa (148)
• Feb. 24 – at Arkansas (33)
• Feb. 27 – at Mississippi State (79)
• Mar. 2 – Auburn in Tuscaloosa (60)

Five of nine on the SEC road, including three of the Tide’s last five, suggests the finish will not be easy. Though not having road arenas, packed with hostile crowds, SEC road games are not as scary as a normal season.

The middle of the closing schedule should give the Crimson Tide needed stress relief. The Tide’s easiest games of the nine should be South Carolina, Georgia, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. South Carolina has had two long disruptions caused by COVID. There were periods when the team could not practice and the Gamecocks’ performance and record has been adversely affected. Two of South Carolina’s December games were canceled. Now at 4-6 overall, Frank Martin’s team beat Georgia on Jan. 27, 83-59.

Georgia, at 10-6, has won three of its last five, beating Kentucky and Ole Miss twice. The Aggies are 8-7. The Dores are 5-6, with one SEC win; just their fourth SEC win since the 2017-18 season. Vandy did beat the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa last season.

In each of those four future games, the Crimson Tide will be favored by double-digit points. The all-important measuring tool, the NCAA NET rankings, does not punish a ‘good’ loss but it does a ‘bad’ loss. Losing any of the four games would be a blow to the Tide’s eventual NCAA Tournament seeding.

Future or nagging injuries can put even seemingly less challenging games at risk. But a mostly healthy Crimson Tide should add four wins in the four games.