Alabama Basketball: Crimson Tide’s loss to Oklahoma was a fluke

A bizarre 24-point loss at Oklahoma on January 28th remains the only dark mark on an otherwise stellar resume for Alabama basketball. The bright side for the Crimson Tide is that the OU loss has been emphatically determined to be a fluke.

Alabama was in a slight fog for a couple games before it played Oklahoma, but the blowout defeat quickly woke the team up. The Tide snapped back to its baseline, and has won its four games since by an average of 25.8 points per game.

If Bama was going to lose a game, the Oklahoma matchup was a timely opportunity to play its worst game of the semester. The SEC/Big 12 Challenge presents a non-conference game right in the middle of the league schedule. By dropping that game and quickly bouncing back, Alabama has managed to remain undefeated in SEC play.

Conversely, Oklahoma has fallen apart since getting its biggest win of the season over the Crimson Tide. Oklahoma entered that game 11-9, with an outside shot to finish the year strong and make the NCAA tournament. After running Alabama out of Norman and notching a much-needed signature win, the Sooners have imploded. OU has not won a game since that day, and frankly, it hasn’t even come close.

Porter Moser’s team followed up the win by losing to rival Oklahoma State by 10, and then was blown out by 32 at West Virginia. Like Oklahoma, the Cowboys and the Mountaineers reside in the bottom half of the Big 12. Both OSU and WVU are borderline NCAA tournament teams at best.

Oklahoma then lost by 10 at Baylor despite putting forth a valiant effort. Most recently, it lost by 23 to Kansas at home to fall to 12-13. OU has lost four straight by double digits since beating Alabama, and has proven that it doesn’t truly belong on the floor with teams of Bama’s caliber.

With the exception of the OU loss, Bama has gone undefeated over the last two months. It is 13-1 since December 17th, and has won those games by over 20 points per outing.

Alabama basketball has been the most dominant and most consistent team in college basketball for the majority of the season. The team should not be judged off one bad day.