The range of opinions about Alabama Basketball in the 2023-24 season is wide. Until Nate Oats lands a couple of impact, inside players, most prognosticators are hedging their bets on the Alabama Crimson Tide.
A couple of days ago, we reviewed the current ESPN rankings and an NCAA Tournament bracket projection by Andy Katz and concluded Alabama is currently projected as the SEC’s fifth-best team for the 2023-24 season.
New Bracketology, provided by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi includes a more optimistic take on the Alabama Crimson Tide. Does Lunardi know something the rest of us don’t? As in which players Nate Oats will add to finish the Crimson Tide roster. Lunardi does not know about future player decisions. He does, however, know how to read the mood of the college basketball room, in the context of NCAA Tournament-worthy teams.
Alabama Basketball fell short of NCAA Tournament expectations last season. That result appears to have done nothing to slow the roster-building momentum Nate Oats has maintained over the last couple of years.
Using Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology as an indicator, Alabama will again be one of the SEC’s top teams.
Alabama Basketball and seven other SEC teams
Lunardi currently projects eight SEC teams will make the NCAA Tournament field. Only one is projected to have a higher seed than the Crimson Tide. Lunardi has the Tennessee Vols as a 2-seed. Right below Tennessee is the Crimson Tide with a 3-seed. Lunardi’s third-highest projected SEC team is the Texas A&M Aggies at a 4-seed. Arkansas is next as a 5-seed, then Mississippi State as a 7-seed.
The Big Blue Nation will not be happy with Lunardi, since he has John Calipari’s team projected as an 8-seed. The Auburn Tigers are also an 8-seed in Lunardi’s projection. The eighth SEC team is the Florida Gators, that Lunardi has placed as a precarious 11-seed.
In typical Nate Oats fashion, Alabama Basketball has some tough out-of-conference competition. The Crimson Tide will play projected 1-seed, Purdue, in Toronto; Projected 2-seed Creighton at home, and projected 4-seed, Arizona in Phoenix. The Purdue game was meant to be a homecoming for the Boliermakers’ Zach Edey and Charles Bediako. Maybe Charles will still attend.
Is a June Bracketology absolute folly? Yes, it is, in terms of eventual seeding, but it is not without merit to identify which teams are likely to be Big Dance-bound next spring. If nothing else, it is fun.