Alabama Basketball looking to make SEC history

Alabama Basketball will have sky-high expectations across the board heading into the 2024-25 season. Much of the fan base has already taken on a “national championship or bust” mentality, but Bama has the opportunity to do something that has seldom been done in the conference. 

If Alabama can win the outright SEC regular season and tournament championship this season, it will have done so in three of the last five years. No SEC team has accomplished this feat in the modern era; not even Kentucky, who has dominated the league historically. 

Kentucky did it most recently, winning the SEC regular season and tournament title nine straight times from 1943 to 1952. The SEC did not hold a postseason tournament from 1953 to 1978, reintroducing the conference tourney in the 1978-79 season. The Wildcats technically swept the conference titles three times in a five year span from 1984-1988, but its 1988 titles were vacated due to NCAA violations. 

Kentucky has flirted with this milestone on several other occasions, but has never sealed the deal. Now, the Wildcats are on a four-year title drought in the regular season and a six-year drought in the conference tournament. Alabama, Auburn, and Tennessee have owned the league since 2020, with Bama’s run arguably being the most impressive of the bunch. 

Alabama has already won both championships outright in the same year on two occasions under Coach Nate Oats (2021 and 2023). Bama is the only SEC team to win both championships in the same season since Kentucky in 2017.

Now, heading into 2024-25, it should be the favorite to sweep the SEC once again for the third time in five years. Though Kentucky has just narrowly missed the mark many times, Alabama Basketball would be the first to actually accomplish this feat since the SEC Tournament was reinstated in 1978-79.