For a second straight day an Alabama basketball team has taken a disappointing loss to the Florida Gators. Florida outhustled the Tide and dominated in the paint to get the upset win in the second round of the SEC Women's Tournament. The loss puts Alabama's chances of hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament at home in jeopardy.
Give credit to the Florida Gators who held Aaliyah Nye in check all night and made Sarah Ashlee Barker work hard for her team high 24 points. The Gators were led by freshman Liv McGill who torched the Tide for 29 points Thursday night.
Despite the quick exit from Greenville Kristy Curry's team is squarely in the NCAA tournament and now will have to wait to see what region they will be seeded in. Most importantly they will find out their fate of whether they have done enough to host tournament games in Coleman Coliseum for the first time in program history.
After the huge win over LSU a week ago it seemed, they were destined to host but not making it to Friday to play the Tigers again may have ended those chances. Alabama won both regular season matchups against the Gators showing just how hard it is to beat a team three times in a single season.
This has been the best women's season in Tuscaloosa since the late 1990s and hopefully this team will rebound from this tough loss to add a few more memories to this special season. This will be the Crimson Tide's third straight NCAA tournament and their goal will be to make it to the Sweet 16. The rebuild hasn't been easy in Tuscaloosa but it would mean a lot for this program to see the second weekend this year. This team is talented enough to make a run, but playing at home would make that goal just a little bit easier.