It's going to take a monumental effort from Alabama on Friday night in Chicago to have a chance to knock off Michigan in the Sweet 16.
The Wolverines are a near double-digit favorite against the Crimson Tide, and for good reason. Along with Arizona and Duke, Michigan has been one of the three best teams in college basketball all season long.
Alabama has been a good, but not quite great, team for most of the season. But it sure has looked like a great team in its first two NCAA Tournament games, producing 20+ wins over Hofstra and Texas Tech to get to the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight year.
But to advance further than that, Alabama is going to have to be even better. Nate Oats knows that, and he's losing sleep over it, according to star guard Labaron Philon.
Not out of fear, but out of the amount of preparation he's putting into this game.
"He's just ready, you can see the look in his eyes," Philon said about Oats. "Just going through the gameplan, the way he's talking about the game, like he's been losing sleep just putting in the extra hours wanting to win this game. I see the look in his eyes; he really wants to win this game. As a player, that means everything. That confidence right there can give you a little bit more of an edge to make plays that we need to make or plays that can flip the game."
Labaron Philon can tell how much Nate Oats wants to beat Michigan
Being that Oats spent 11 years coaching high school basketball in Michigan, it would figure that facing off against the Wolverines would carry some extra meaning for him, aside from the fact that he's two wins away from getting the Crimson Tide back to the Final Four for the second time.
Oats has said several times that he's just a high school coach who caught a few breaks to get to where he is. He might say that publicly, and perhaps he even believes it, but deep down there's a competitive drive that fuels Oats to constantly prove that he's good enough to be here.
Beating Michigan won't be easy. Only three teams have done it this year. Dusty May has built a complete team with no real weaknesses. But if Alabama can shoot as it did against Texas Tech, and the defensive leap we've seen in two tournament games continues, then the Crimson Tide has more than a puncher's chance of winning this game.