Nate Oats and Alabama basketball earned arguably the best win of the young college basketball season on Saturday by going on the road and knocking off then-No. 5 St. John's 103-96 at Madison Square Garden.
As a result, Alabama made a leap in the AP Poll from the No. 15 spot it began the season in. It just didn't jump nearly high enough.
In the latest AP Poll, the Crimson Tide was ranked No. 8:
BREAKING: College Basketball AP Poll🏀 https://t.co/0H5QRGnb2s pic.twitter.com/JEmagyRxf2
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Evidently, preseason projection still means more than the results on the court.
Houston is No. 1 now, robbing Alabama of playing Purdue (now No. 2) as the No. 1 team in the country on Thursday in Tuscaloosa.
And why, exactly? Houston's best win to date is over KenPom No. 130 Towson.
No. 2 Purdue's best win? Oakland (173 in KenPom).
No. 3 UConn? They haven't played a team ranked inside the Top 300 yet.
No. 4 Duke earned a solid "semi-home" win over KenPom No. 37 Texas, but that pales in comparison to Alabama's road win over St. John's.
No. 5 Arizona has a quality win over defending National Champion Florida on a neutral court.
No. 6 Michigan has played one game, a laugher against the same Oakland team that is Purdue's best win.
No. 7 BYU has a nice neutral floor win over Villanova.
But none of the wins for the teams ranked above Alabama match up to what the Crimson Tide did on Saturday against St. John's.
Alabama isn't a blue blood in college basketball, though they have been the most consistent program in the country over the last three seasons. Alabama is the only program in the country that has gone to back-to-back Elite Eights and three consecutive Sweet 16s.
Had Duke or UConn earned a road win over a St. John's caliber program this early in the season, you can bet they would be ranked No. 1.
Nate Oats can continue using Alabama being overlooked as motivation
It was clear from his postgame comments following Saturday's win at the Garden that Oats used his team being overlooked as motivation. Even jumping into the Top 10, he can still use that as motivation heading into Thursday night's showdown against No. 2 Purdue in Coleman Coliseum.
Alabama's terrific guard play overwhelmed the Johnnies, something that Rick Pitino certainly believes is going to happen to a lot of teams facing the Crimson Tide this year.
Pundits took a wait-and-see approach on Alabama this year following the departure of so many key players from last season's Elite Eight squad, none bigger than program stalwart Mark Sears, who is in the pantheon of Tide hoops history.
But Oats has earned the benefit of the doubt in roster building. After one Quad 1 game, it's clear that the Crimson Tide has a higher ceiling than anyone wanted to believe in the preseason.
It's just too bad that preseason bias remains prevalent in the AP Poll right now because this team deserves more respect.