Alabama Basketball: One SEC game in, ranking the league from top to bottom
By Ronald Evans
Alabama Basketball has played more than a third of its 2023-24 season. At 9-5, how does the Crimson Tide rate against the SEC's other 13 teams? Since college basketball is a tournament sport, ranking teams much earlier than February can produce erroneous conclusions. That does not stop a media frenzy to 'Power Rank' teams early and often.
For the sake of clarity, what follows is a power ranking intended to suggest how good the SEC's teams might be in February and beyond. It includes each team's overall record, SEC record, best win, best lost, and worst loss. Most of the teams are difficult to rank and Nate Oats' Crimson Tide is one of them.
Alabama Basketball is a mixture of deep, individual talent and team strengths and weaknesses. Against the top competition in the Tide's tough schedule, the strengths have not been enough to overcome the weaknesses. Alabama basketball fans hope the early season adversity will pay off with a team ready to take on all comers.
Alabama Basketball - KenPom Rankings
The single source used to define the relative strength of teams is Ken Pomeroy's algorithm. According to the KenPom calculation, Alabama Basketball is the SEC's third-best team. The rankings below are not intended to match Ken Pomeroy's ratings of SEC teams.
SEC Basketball (from bottom to top) - No. 14 Vanderbilt Commodores 5-9 (SEC 0-1)
The Dores gave the Crimson Tide all it wanted Saturday in Nashville. SEC road wins are always premium but Alabama giving up a big lead, to hang on to a win, was not impressive. The KenPom ranking for Vanderbilt is No. 185. Vandy's best win is over No. 156 UNC Greensboro. Their best loss is to the Crimson Tide. Vandy's worst loss was 68-62 in Nashville against No. 300 Presbyterian.
No. 13 Missouri Tigers 8-6 (0-1)
Missouri's KenPom ranking is No. 101. The best win for the Tigers is a 71-64 road win over No. 54 Pitt. Their best loss is to No. 7 Illinois, 97-73 on a neutral court. The worst loss is to No. 249 Jackson State, 73-72 at home.