Alabama Basketball: Sweet 16 stumbling blocks in Tide NCAA resume

For Alabama Basketball and all but a handful of other programs making a Sweet Sixteen is a milestone. It’s also one in which the Tide has struggled.

There are around 40 Division One programs with more Sweet Sixteen appearances than Alabama Basketball. The ‘around’ qualifier is necessary depending on how 1976 is counted for the Crimson Tide. The 1976 Alabama Crimson Tide was one of the NCAA Tournament’s final 16 teams. Because the field was only 32 teams, the Tide progressed to that stage with a single win.

Some lists give the Tide credit for a Sweet 16 slot in 1976. Others do not. Those that don’t begin counting Tide Sweet Sixteens in 1982. Based on how 1976 is counted, Alabama Basketball has reached the Sweet 16 eight or nine times in the school’s NCAA Tournament career.

We’ll call it nine times, giving Alabama Basketball a Sweet Sixteen record of 1-8. Being just one game above being, 0-for-Sweet 16, in appearances is a humbling record. The stories of the past eight games paint a somewhat brighter picture.

This Sunday against UCLA is only the second time Alabama Basketball has been the favorite in a Sweet 16 game. The other time was 1987 when Rick Pitino’s Providence Friars humiliated the Crimson Tide.

In the Crimson Tide’s lone Sweet Sixteen win, it was a definite underdog, to 23-7 Syracuse. In five of the other six games, the Crimson Tide was an underdog that performed well. In the 1976 loss to Indiana, the Tide came close to taking down the undefeated Hoosiers. After Bobby Knight’s team went on to win the National Championship, he stated the Crimson Tide was the best team the Hoosiers faced that season.

Other commendable Crimson Tide Sweet Sixteen losses were to North Carolina, North Carolina State, Kentucky and Loyola-Marymount. The worst loss in the group was by six points to the Wolfpack in 1985.

The two-point loss to Loyola-Marymount in 1990 was a crushing defeat. Paul Westhead’s team was averaging almost 125 points a game. Wimp Sanderon’s Crimson Tide slowed down their normally frenetic pace and held them to 62 points. Making 24 turnovers, the Tide could only muster 60 points. Leading by eight, with eight minutes to go, the Tide could not close the deal. Twice in the closing seconds, the Tide had a chance to tie. Melvin Cheatum missed a little bank shot and Robert Horry’s hurried shot at the buzzer bounced off the rim.

The only time an underdog Tide was completely outmatched was when taking on 1-seed Arkansas in 1991. The Razorbacks administered a through 93-70 whipping.

None of the history will have any impact on Sunday’s game with UCLA. Though most are predicting a relatively close game, the Crimson Tide is favored by college basketball experts.

Building the Tide’s Sweet Sixteen resume matters in only one way. That is getting to the Elite Eight and one game away from where the Tide has never advanced – to a Final Four.