Alabama Basketball: This week could bring a return to the AP Top 25

The Alabama Basketball team had a golden opportunity to add another quad-one win in Saturday's game against the Tennessee Volunteers but, ended up coming out flat losing 91-71 snapping a six-game winning streak. In this week's AP Top 25 poll the Alabama Basketball team remained unranked but, was once again in the others receiving votes category receiving 30 votes ranking the Tide at 29th.

This week however could provide Alabama with a chance to get back into the Top 25 for the first time since week four of the poll. The Tide will have two tough matchups playing host to the eighth-ranked Auburn Tigers and 11-7 LSU.

The Auburn Tigers will enter the matchup 16-2 with a perfect 5-0 record in conference ranking atop the SEC. The Tigers are on an eleven-game win streak with an offense close to the Crimson Tide's scoring 83.7 points per game. The Tigers are led by Johni Broome who's averaging 15.3 points per game and 8.4 rebounds per game in his second season at Auburn. The Tigers similar to the Alabama Basketball team have a different scorer stepping up each game with Broome, Jaylin Williams, Chad Baker-Mazara, and Aden Holloway each stepping up at different times. The Alabama Basketball team will need to step up its effort defensively as Auburn shoots 33.9% from three and 47.3% from the field.

Saturday's matchup against the LSU Tigers will be just as challenging as the matchup with the Auburn Tigers. LSU's two losses in conference have come to two of the top teams in Auburn and Texas A&M but, the Tigers have strung together a handful of impressive performances as of late. The Tigers are led by their guards Jordan Wright and Jalen Cook who are both averaging 15 points per game. The size of LSU's forwards could provide a difficult challenge with Jalen Reed coming in at 6"10 and Will Baker who is 7"0. The Alabama Basketball team will need another strong performance from Grant Nelson who's defense has been one of the strong points this season.

Alabama Basketball: Time to step up on Defense

When the Alabama Basketball team went on their six-game winning streak we saw a step taken defensively with the team allowing just 65.66 points per game. However, in their first game against a tougher opponent that can score with Alabama's offense the Crimson Tide allowed 91 points to the Volunteers. The defense can easily be helped by cleaning up rebounds and limiting turnovers as Alabama allowed 11 offensive rebounds and turned the ball over 22 times on Saturday. In their six losses, the Alabama Basketball team is allowing 88.67 points per game a mark that has to be lowered if this team hopes to compete in March.

Note: Stats via ESPN