Alabama Basketball: After LSU win, Tide moves to NCAA No. 1 seed

Alabama Basketball: The latest NCAA Tournament Bracketology from Joe Lunardi has the Crimson Tide as a projected No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Being undefeated in the SEC and sweeping Kentucky and LSU is paying off for Alabama Basketball. A Thursday Bracketology update from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi projects the Alabama Crimson Tide as an NCAA Tournament, No. 1 seed. The Bracketology cottage industry does not go back as far as the NCAA Tournament, but the projected No. 1 seed is the first-ever for the Crimson Tide.

The other teams projected as No. 1 seeds by Joe Lunardi are Gonzaga, Baylor and Michigan. Lunardi has six SEC basketball teams projected to make the NCAA Tournament field.

Through the games of Feb. 3, the Alabama Crimson Tide has moved up to No. 8 in the NCAA NET rankings. Looking at the S-Curve for all 68 projected NCAA Tournament teams, provided by TeamRankings.com the closest team to the Crimson Tide in the SEC is the Tide’s Saturday opponent, the Missouri Tigers.

Missouri is projected at No. 13 on the S-Curve, with a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The contest on Saturday in Columbia, MO could solidify (for now) the Tide’s projected NCAA seeding. Being a road game versus a highly-ranked team, the Crimson Tide would not be hurt much by a loss.

The ‘for now’ clarification on projected seeding is a reminder the regular season is far from over. Projected brackets change daily but Alabama basketball fans can celebrate typical February ‘bubble-sweating’ not happening this season. The Crimson Tide’s final seeding could drop before Selection Sunday on Mar. 14. It can’t, of course, go higher than a No. 1 seed and reaching that current milestone surprises most Alabama basketball fans. The broad confidence in Nate Oats did not include such progress so quickly.

As highly respected as Missouri is, college basketball experts, including Warren Nolan, no longer favor the Tigers over the Tide. Missouri was a slight favorite but currently, Nolan has the Crimson Tide winning 78-76. Ken Pomery remains bullish on the Crimson Tide, ranking Nate Oats’ team at No. 7, one spot higher than the NCAA NET.

Speaking about the Missouri game, after the LSU win, Nate Oats said,

"we have to be ready, hopefully continue to improve and get our offense back where it was two or three weeks ago, four games in a row our offense hasn’t clicked like it had been. We’ve been winning games on our defense the last two weeks. We need our offense to catch back up again."

The Missouri game has another morning start for the Crimson Tide. The game tips off at 11:00 AM CST and can be seen on ESPN.