For Nate Oats, season six in Tuscaloosa is different. It is different for the Alabama Crimson Tide basketball program as well. Coming off the program's first-ever Final Four appearance, Nate Oats and his players are talking about winning it all in the 2024-25 season.
The bold talk is warranted. Recently talking about National Championship goals, Oats said, "I like the fact that they’ve got big goals. I don’t think we want guys that are selling themselves short. I think we’ve got the talent, that’s what we should be talking about."
Last season a very good Alabama basketball team was missing a key ingredient for championship success. Alabama lacked a consistent rim protector. It has one this season in Cliff Omoruyi, who is an all-around solid defender, shot blocker, tenacious rebounder, and aggressive offensive player.
Omoruyi is not the Tide's only important roster addition. Nate Oats has every piece needed for championship contention. The Alabama roster has never before gone so deep with so much talent. Assigning minutes will be a challenge. Two or three good players will not get many minutes. One or more players might even be redshirted, with the most likely being Naas Cunningham.
When the season opens Monday night against UNC-Asheville, roster rotation will be easier. Chris Youngblood is still recovering from an injury. Grant Nelson, Latrell Wrightsell Jr., and newcomer Aiden Sherrell are expected to play. The trio are not 100% and will be carefully worked into the regular rotation by starting the season with a minutes restriction.
Alabama Crimson Tide 2024-25 Schedule
As per the norm for Nate Oats, the 2024-25 schedule is loaded with difficulty. Not counting last season's SEC teams, the schedule includes seven NCAA Tournament teams from last season; three being 1-seed teams in the Big Dance. Three lower-profile out-of-conference opponents are predicted to win their respective leagues. Purdue and Houston are among the top favorites to win the Big Ten and the Big 12. Adding to the difficulty is every SEC road game can again be expected to be a major challenge.
Becoming a college basketball National Champion is more precarious than other college, team sports. It takes winning six (or seven for a play-in team) straight games at the end, generally with two or three or those games against top teams playing their best at the end of the season.
As hard as it is to win it all, the 2024-25 season could be a triple championship season for the Alabama Crimson Tide.