After the tough end to the regular season the chances of getting a one seed for this Alabama basketball team seemed dead in the water. However, after a big road win over Auburn to close the regular season, Alabama might be an SEC Tournament Championship away from grabbing that final spot. The chance of it happening may be small, but getting a third win over Kentucky, a possible win over Florida, and a win on Sunday over possibly either Auburn or Tennessee should be more than enough for the tournament committee to give great consideration of putting Nate Oats' team into the last one seed spot.
Beating a team three times in a season is quite the task but that is the first step which must be taken tonight when Alabama faces Kentucky. As usual, the SEC Tournament is dominated by the Wildcat fan base, so it will seem like a home game for Mark Pope's team, though I would expect a healthy amount of crimson in the crowd, with the amount of Alabama fans in the Nashville area.
The Wildcats will be riding quite a lot of momentum coming off the emotional win over Oklahoma, so it will be very important for the Tide to not start slow. We match up well with the Wildcats and if we play our game, I expect to see Saturday.
A win over Kentucky would lead to a Saturday afternoon matchup against either Florida or Missouri. Of course, playing Florida would do the most for the quest to snatch a one seed, but as a fan, a matchup against either would be great for revenge purposes. We match up better against Mizzou as I don't believe the shooting clinic they had in Columbia will happen again in Nashville. Florida right now may be the best team in the country, so we would have to play much better than we did, especially on the defensive end, to beat the Gators if that is the opponent.
Of course, by Sunday, with how crazy the SEC tournament has been to this point, there will probably be a matchup nobody has on their radar, but if the Tide are fortunate to see the finals, they will more than likely will be seeing the Tigers or Vols to clinch the much coveted SEC championship.
The most important thing for this Alabama team is they will have to play smart. There can't be the dumb turnovers, free-throws need to go in, and the defensive effort has to be active and consistent. The Grant Nelson that showed up in Lee County will have to be present all weekend and it will be important for Chris Youngblood to be much closer to the shooter we saw in Tuscaloosa against Mississippi State.