The second Saturday in the SEC basketball season is too early to talk about pivotal games. On Saturday night in College Station, a loss will not knock the Crimson Tide out of contention for anything. The same is true for Texas A&M.
Nate Oats has a somewhat different perspective. Talking about the game, Oats said, "The game’s gonna go a long ways to who’s gonna be in the conversation for winning the league championship. There’s five teams that are 2-0 and we’re two of them. They’ve got the third longest win streak in the country and we’ve got either the sixth or seventh longest win streak in the country."
Oats also knows how hard it is to beat a Buzz Williams-coached team. Williams has three wins in their matchups and Oats has two. The two teams first played in 1958 with Alabama winning 66-62. Eugene Lambert's 1958-59 team was not very good but it beat the Aggies in Foster Auditorium. Alabama has only won in College Station twice. The first win came in the 1992 season. The second one goes back two Crimson Tide coaches. Anthony Grant's 2015 team beat the Aggies 61-60 in Reed Arena.
Ken Pomeroy rates the Crimson Tide higher than Texas A&M. The KPom rankings have Alabama at No. 7 and the Aggies at No. 15. Pomeroy predicts a close game and a Texas A&M win. In the NCAA NET rankings, Alabama is No. 8 and the Aggies are No. 15.
Alabama Basketball must handle tough environment and physical play
Oats knows his team can be vulnerable against the tough Texas A&M defense. According to KPom, the Aggies have the nation's No. 12 defense. Oats said, "They turn people over. We’ve had an issue with turnovers too many times this year, so we’ve got to protect the ball better than what we have too many times this year. They’re tough guys. We’ve been able to save ourselves with our poor shooting from three with how many offensive rebounds we’ve gotten. They roll out some tough guys that aren’t just gonna hand us O boards. We’re gonna be in a dog fight down there, and we know it."
The Aggies will be without Wade Taylor IV, who will miss a second game due to an undisclosed injury. No doubt Buzz Williams will implore his team to use their toughness and strong rebounding to make up for not having Taylor's scoring.
Buzz Williams loves dogfight games, but Nate Oats might love them even more. If the Crimson Tide can come out on top, a 3-0 SEC start, with two road wins would create some early separation from almost every other SEC team.