- Reason No. 2 - Alabama's top players, if not the entire roster, believe they can beat the Huskies. The late-season version of the Alabama Crimson Tide has a 'refuse to lose' mentality. Nate Oats deserves credit for his team's mental toughness. Oats and his players fear no team and will not be awed by anything UConn does.
- Reason No. 3 - The primary reason for Alabama's strong belief is the team's confidence in its 'Brain Trust'. Relying on analytics is a given in college basketball, but no team has a data science and game-planning group equal to the Crimson Tide. And no team uses a data trove as boldly as Nate Oats.
- Reason No. 4 - Much has been made about Alabama being ranked by Ken Pomeroy at No. 105 in Adjusted Defensive Efficiency. UConn ranked No. 4, indicates the Huskies are a serious defensive threat while the Crimson Tide is not. Bart Torvik's calculation from the Tide's four NCAA Tournament games provides a more accurate assessment. For the same stat, Torvik has the Crimson Tide at No. 56. Even that ranking would have been much lower if the Crimson Tide had not hit a defensive cruise button in the second half against Charleston. The bottom line is Alabama now, is a far better defensive team than it was before the NCAA Tournament.