Alabama basketball had bigger goals, but this season was not a disappointment

The most anticipated season in Alabama basketball history has come to a close with the Crimson Tide losing to Duke in the Elite Eight and falling short of a second straight trip to the Final Four.

Alabama entered the year with lofty expectations. The highest expectations had ever been for basketball in Tuscaloosa. Coming off of last year's run to the Final Four, with key pieces like Mark Sears, Grant Nelson, and Latrell Wrightsell returning, a much ballyhooed Transfer Portal class that included Chris Youngblood, Cliff Omoruyi, and Aden Holloway, and a freshman class highlighted by three highly-regarded newcomers in Labaron Philon, Derrion Reid, and Aiden Sherrell, many thought Alabama had the best roster in college basketball on paper.

But the games aren't played on paper. Alabama's lack of size at guard was an immediate flaw. And everything changed when Wrightsell, the team's best three-point shooter and a good perimeter defender, was lost for the season with a torn Achilles. We never got to see this team at full strength. Wrightsell was injured before Youngblood was healthy.

Houston Mallette was going to be Wrightsell's replacement, but his knees were never right. Reid missed a huge chunk of SEC play with an injured leg and was not in a good rhythm for the NCAA Tournament.

Nelson played through injuries the entire season. When one thing healed another thing festered.

Through it all, Alabama still won 28 games and advanced to the Elite Eight for only the third time in program history. Expectations were higher, but it's impossible to call that a disappointing season when the program has made it this far so infrequently. It's a testament to what Nate Oats has built at Alabama that it would even be a fleeting thought.

"I told our guys, we’ve raised this program to a level where the standard is really high," said Oats in the aftermath of the loss to Duke.

"99 percent of college basketball players would trade places with these guys with the year we had. But we’re disappointed. We had bigger goals, and it’s disappointing to go out like we went out."

The disappointment stems from a poor night offensively against an elite Duke defense. Alabama scored just 65 points, its second-lowest total of the season, coming just 48 hours after they drained an NCAA Tournament record 25 three-pointers and scored 113 points against BYU.

Even still, if you are looking at the history of the program, this is on the shortlist of the best years in program history. If you are an analytical guy, this was the best team in school history, at least per KenPom. It's the first time in the KenPom era (since 1997) that the Crimson Tide finished with a Net Rating above 30. The team two years ago that was the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and widely regarded as the best in school history finished at +27.28. This year's team is at +30.35.

It just so happened that teams like Duke, Florida, Houston, and Auburn happened to be historically good. Alabama was on that next tier of teams with Tennessee; one of the five or six best teams in the country, but not on the same level as the top four.

Some moments to remember from Alabama's 2024-25 season

There were a lot more highs than lows for this team. It didn't end the way it had hoped, but that doesn't change some moments that will always be remembered.

Like beating Houston in Las Vegas, the Tide's third straight win over an elite Cougars program. Or going on the road and beating North Carolina in Chapel Hill by 15 points. Or going 3-0 against Kentucky for the first time in program history.

Then there was the Mark Sears game-winner at Auburn, spoiling Senior Day for the Tigers and sending a dagger straight through the hearts of the Neville Arena faithful.

And then there was another strong run in the NCAA Tournament, capped by a brilliant offensive showcase in the Sweet 16 where Alabama broke a 35-year-old NCAA Tournament record held by fun-and-gun Loyola Marymount. The Tide hit 25 threes, breaking the old record by four, on the way to a blowout win over the Cougars.

It's okay to be disappointed with how things ended. Expectations were higher for this team. But those expectations probably should have been adjusted when Wrightsell got hurt.

But basketball can't be viewed in a Final Four-or-bust or National Championship-or-bust lens. It's too hard to get there, and it's too hard to win the whole thing for that. If that's how you view it now that Alabama has made the Final Four once, you're not going to derive enjoyment out of this sport. Because more times than not, Alabama - and everyone else - will fall short of a Final Four.

There's a reason you hang banners when you get there. Because it's hard. And it's supposed to be. If it were an easy thing to do, it wouldn't feel so special when it happened.

And it will happen again. Oats has elevated this program to the elite tier of college basketball. Even replacing key players like Sears and Nelson, Oats will put a talented team on the court next season that can stack up among the best in the country.

Maybe next year the team will break through again and play in the Final Four. Maybe they even win the whole thing. They probably won't, but Oats has elevated the program so much that the impossible no longer feels as such. Alabama belongs in that tier of contenders each season.

Alabama used to be just good enough to break your heart. Most Tide basketball fans were too jaded to allow their hopes to get up too much, knowing how it would inevitably end.

Those endings have changed. Thanks to Oats, Alabama keeps putting itself in position to take swings at the plate. You need as many as you can to eventually win the whole thing. He'll have Alabama at the plate again, ready to hack away in 2025-26.

Don't be surprised to see the ball sail into the stands.