Alabama Basketball: A disappointing loss to Arkansas did little to change the Crimson Tide’s chances to win SEC Championship and gain a high NCAA seed.
For all involved with Alabama Basketball, the Arkansas game was a disappointment. Foul disparity changed the flow of the game away from the Tide’s preferred style. Worse, Arkansas played better than the Crimson Tide in almost every component of the game.
Nate Oats’ team must get up off the mat and return to form Saturday night in Starkville. The good news is the Arkansas loss changed nothing in team goals for the season. The Crimson Tide still has a magic number of one win or one Arkansas loss to win the outright regular-season SEC Championship. The postponed road game against Texas A&M has been replaced with another away game, at Georgia on Mar. 6. The Hogs get the Aggies at home. The full list of rescheduled SEC games is here.
With three SEC regular-season games left, the Alabama Crimson Tide has a 2.5 game lead over Arkansas and a 3.5 game lead over the LSU Tigers. The regular-season SEC Championship is a big deal for Tide basketball but tournament seeding is almost as important.
SEC Tournament Seeding (through games of Feb. 24)
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Arkansas
- LSU
- Florida
- Tennessee
- Ole Miss
- Tie Missouri and Kentucky
- Mississippi State
- Georgia
- Texas A&M
- South Carolina
- Vanderbilt
Auburn is not eligible for the SEC Tournament or any other post-season play.
Based on the current seeding, Alabama Basketball would open the SEC Tournament against the winner of Game 2 between the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds; so the winner of Mississippi State vs. either Missouri or Kentucky.
Alabama Basketball NCAA Tournament Bracketology
ESPN Bracketologist, Joe Lunardi did not lower the Tide’s seeding much after the loss to Arkansas. He still has the Tide as a 2-seed, down to the No. 6 overall seed compared to No. 5 before the loss.
In the NCAA NET, the Crimson Tide dropped to No. 9 from No. 8. KenPomeroy dropped the Crimson Tide to No. 10. The other two algorithms the Selection Committee considers have consistently rated the Tide lower than Lunardi, Pomeroy and Jerry Palm. In the current Sagarin rankings the Tide is No. 15, The ESPN BPI has the Crimson Tide at No. 14.
With the Wednesday night win, Arkansas moved up to No. 21 in the NCAA NET ranking. Other SEC, projected NCAA teams are Tennessee at No. 16; Florida at No. 27; LSU at No. 29 and Missouri at No. 46.
Nate Oats’ team needs to put the loss behind them and rebound quickly. The Tide needs to regain lost momentum.