Alabama Basketball: Complete Crimson Tide NCAA Tournament History

For Alabama basketball fans, check out this summary of every Big Dance game played by the Crimson Tide going back to 1975.

For some Alabama basketball fans, memories of Crimson Tide ‘Big Dance’ glory don’t go back further than the 2004 Elite Eight season. Until this season, under the leadership of Nate Oats, Alabama Basketball has only qualified for four NCAA Tournaments since the 2004 season.

The Alabama Crimson Tide made 15 NCAA appearances and played in 29 Big Dance games prior to the 2004 season. The NCAA Tournament was played for more than three and half decades before the Crimson Tide made a Big Dance field.

March Madness didn’t start out as the ‘Big Dance.’ In 1939, it was an eight-team invitational field. The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) begun one year earlier was the more prestigious tournament for many years.

In 1951, the field was expanded to 16 teams. It took until 1975 for the field to expand to 32 teams, with incremental additions to 22 teams in 1953 and 25 teams in 1969. From 1979 to 1984, the field grew to 40 teams, then 48, 52 and 53. 1985 was the year of the last major expansion, to 64 teams. A single play-in game was added in 2001, with three more play-in games added in 2011.

Prior to 1975, only one team per conference could qualify. The 22-4 1974 Alabama Crimson Tide did not get the one SEC bid. Tuscaloosa hosted the Regional Finals in 1974, with Vanderbilt, Marquette, Notre Dame and Michigan playing in what was then called Memorial Coliseum.

The Alabama Basketball NCAA Tournament record is 23 wins and 23 losses. Going back to the first one in 1975, those 46 games are summarized in the following pages.