Alabama broke a two-game home losing streak on Tuesday night with a dominant 90-64 win over Missouri in Coleman Coliseum.
The win pushed Alabama to 14-6 overall and 4-3 in the SEC, which is still shy of this team's expectations after an impressive non-conference run that included road wins over St. John's and Illinois.
Because of that, the Crimson Tide has seen its NCAA Tournament seeding projections drop into the 5-seed range by most bracket experts. A 5-seed is where Joe Lunardi of ESPN had them heading into Tuesday night's game against Missouri, and that isn't likely to improve based on the Tigers' standing as a bubble team.
But it's the updated projection by CBS Sports that is eye-catching. Alabama is a 5-seed there, too, but is set up with a brutal draw that would make it incredibly difficult to get to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive season.
CBS Sports gives Alabama a brutal NCAA Tournament draw
The 5/12 first-round matchup is frequently one of the most popular March Madness upsets. If this bracket projection held true, you can bet Alabama would be a popular pick to be upset.
CBS has the Crimson Tide as a 5-seed in the East Region. The 12? How about undefeated Miami (OH), who sits at a perfect 21-0. KenPom doesn't believe in the RedHawks as they rank 90th there, but a 21-0 record is impressive regardless of the schedule it came against.
That would be a challenging first-round matchup for Nate Oats and his team. If Alabama was able to navigate it, waiting for them would likely be 4-seeded Texas Tech, which is currently on a five-game winning streak that included wins over BYU and Houston.
Getting back to the Sweet 16 would be a challenge in that pod, and getting past that would be even more arduous. Waiting in the second weekend would be a potential rematch against Duke, who knocked the Tide out of the NCAA Tournament in the Elite Eight a year ago. The Blue Devils might be even better this season, led by Player of the Year favorite Cameron Boozer.
The best cure for a tough draw right now is to keep winning games. If Alabama can get on a run in SEC play, which might depend on whether they can ever actually get healthy, they'll start seeing their bracket projection improve.
Getting into the 3-seed range, which will be a tall task from here, would probably be the best-case scenario and would serve to allow them to miss going through a 1-seed to get to the Elite Eight.
With the controversy surrounding Charles Bediako, the Crimson Tide won't get the benefit of the doubt, however, so they'll have to force the committee's hands. They can start to do that on Sunday in Gainesville against Florida.