Alabama Basketball: Regular-Season SEC Championship matters

Alabama Basketball is close to locking down the SEC regular-season Championship. A look at the historical perspective and what the title would mean.

In a sports world where regular seasons are underappreciated, Alabama Basketball is close to finishing a historic one. With four (maybe, five if the postponed TAMU game is played) SEC regular-season games left on the Crimson Tide schedule, Nate Oats’ team has a commanding lead in the SEC standings.

The Alabama Crimson Tide is 12-1 in SEC play (17-5 overall) and holds a 3-game lead in the standings over Arkansas, a 3.5-game lead over LSU, a  4-game lead over Tennessee and 5-game leads over Florida and Ole Miss. To win the regular-season SEC Championship, the Tide’s magic number of wins is two. A win Saturday over Vanderbilt would drop the number to one. The Tide can shut the door on other teams with a win in Fayetteville next Wednesday.

A loss to Arkansas might push the magic number back to two. Should Arkansas win out in its remaining scheduled games and the Tide were to lose to the Hogs and wither of Vandy, Mississippi State and Auburn, the Tide would be 14-3 in SEC play and the Hogs, 13-4. The SEC would then decide if TAMU could play each team to make up for past postponements. If Arkansas beat the Aggies and the Tide did not, both teams would be 14-4.

Arkansas has not lost in SEC play since they were blown out by the Tide in Tuscaloosa. To catch Alabama Basketball will require the Razorbacks to win 12 consecutive SEC games.

An easier path leads Alabama Basketball to a ‘shared’ title. The Crimson Tide has shared a regular-season championship three times this century; in 2002, 2005 and 2011. The Tide also shared the title in 1974 and 1975. Outright SEC regular-season championships have been less rare. The last one was 1987 and was the Tide’s fourth ever. The other three were 1934, 1956 and 1976.

At least in Crimson Tide record books, being the outright SEC Champion is a big deal. Based on multiple comments by Nate Oats, he considers it a big deal as well. Reaching the achievement in his second Crimson Tide season would be a boost for Nate Oats. He has improved the program quickly. His team has shown potential for even greater accomplishments. The contract extension announced for Oats on Thursday was a smart move by Greg Byrne. No doubt other schools were interested in Oats and a raise to $3.225M slams the door on other suitors.

Nate Oats has higher ambitions than a big raise. He wants this year’s Tide to win multiple championships. A ‘double’ for the Tide would be being the ‘outright’ regular-season winner, plus the winner of the SEC Basketball Tournament. The Crimson Tide has won six SEC Tournaments, with the last three having come in back-to-back-to-back fashion in 1989, 1990 and 1991. The Crimson Tide won it in 1987 as well.

Reach the ‘double’ milestone and Alabama basketball fans can debate what a satisfactory ‘triple’ would be. Winning the NCAA Tournament would give an automatic triple. A strong argument can be made a Final Four appearance would be enough for a ‘triple.’

Before Thursday night games began, Joe Lunardi had the Crimson Tide as the second, No. 2 seed, behind Illinois. Alabama basketball fans will be bracket watching closely until Mar. 14.