Though it is still among the best teams in the country, Alabama Basketball has fallen short of expectation in recent weeks. Alabama has played a brutal schedule all year and is in the midst of a seven-game stretch against ranked opponents.
So far, that stretch hasn’t gone well. Yesterday’s loss to Tennessee means the Crimson Tide has now dropped three of its last five games.
Bama’s 23-6 overall record is still more than respectable, but it isn’t quite the dominant year that fans expected after a home run offseason. To make matters worse, the hated rival Auburn Tigers are having the season many Bama fans thought the Tide would enjoy.
While it’s perfectly fine to be frustrated, now is the time for Bama Hoops fans to show some patience, and maybe reflect a little. For one, this is still one of the best seasons in school history, and should be appreciated as such.
Secondly, in the sport of college basketball, postseason play disproportionately determines the true measure of success in a given season.
For Alabama, it needs to look no further than last year to find evidence of this. Alabama Basketball had struggles all season long; it was one of the worst defensive teams in the country and regularly failed to beat quality opponents. After a blowout loss to Florida in the SEC Tournament, Bama was 21-11 and had lost three of its last four games and four of its last six.
The 2023-24 Alabama squad struggled so mightily against quality competition that very few fans expected it to win even one NCAA Tournament game despite it being the highest-scoring team in the nation.
Conversely, Auburn entered the Big Dance with a 27-7 record as SEC Tournament champions and winners of six straight games.
Still, with the benefit of hindsight, most would say that Alabama had a more successful season, largely because the Tide made a run to the Final Four while Auburn fell in the first round to Yale.
I make this reference to last year just to say that Alabama fans shouldn’t be getting too hung up on regular season losses, especially to other top-10 teams. Bama is still very well positioned to get a favorable NCAA Tournament draw, and it has about three more weeks before it truly needs to peak.
Last March, Coach Nate Oats had his team hitting its stride at the perfect time and I believe he can do something similar this year.