Basketball season is creeping up right around the corner. Alabama's first exhibition, as it begins preparations for the 2025-26 season, is in just 10 days. The Crimson Tide will face Florida State in Birmingham on October 16th.
Alabama will face off against Furman in another exhibition on October 26th, and then the season will officially tip off with a November 3rd matchup at home against North Dakota.
You can tell by how Nate Oats talks about this team that he's excited about its potential. It won't enter the season with the same expectations it did a year ago, but the ceiling might actually be higher. Alabama's deficiencies from a year ago were due to a lack of size at guard and being merely a good - but far from great - defensive team. Alabama got bigger in the backcourt - and longer on the perimeter - and should take a step forward on the defensive end, though that likely requires a big step forward in rim protection from Aiden Sherrell or Bucknell transfer Noah Williamson.
What could make Alabama even more dangerous is its ability to hit threes. Shooting from beyond the arc is a staple of any Oats-coached team, but just because the team attempts a ton of threes doesn't necessarily mean they are any good at it.
Last year's team, for instance, attempted 46% of its shots from the field from behind the three-point line. They only made 35.3% of them, however, which ranked 95th in the country.
During Alabama's Final Four run, Alabama shot 37.3% from three, which ranked 19th in the country. If Alabama can combine elite three-point shooting with elite defense, then this team could be good enough to win the whole thing.
Nate Oats believes this Alabama team could be the best shooting team he's had
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Oats doubled down on what he said a few months ago, while they were still in the midst of constructing the roster.
"I think we've got the potential to be the best shooting team we've had here," Oats said.
That belief stems from having multiple elite - and proven - college shooters on this roster. Latrell Wrightsell, Aden Holloway, Houston Mallette, and Taylor Bol Bowen all have 40%+ three-point seasons on their resumes. Labaron Philon looks much improved as a shooter, and while he only shot 31.5% from deep as a freshman, he hit 38% of his attempts over the final 14 games of the season.
Both Sherrell and Williamson can be stretch-fives in this system, meaning Alabama will have multiple lineups where all five guys on the court are shooting threats.
With Philon leading the way, this offense has the potential to be as good as any in the country. If the defense can take another step forward, then Alabama will be a threat to not only make the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for a fourth year in a row, but also get back to the Final Four and potentially be the last team standing.