With the SEC sitting as the toughest conference on the hardwood, it is a good thing that this Alabama basketball team is far ahead of where they were going into Christmas last year. There is plenty for this team to get better at as the Tide moves into conference play next week.
Once again Nate Oats made sure this team played the toughest schedule in America and the results were much better in 2024. To start the season this team even with a lot of new faces has a lot more chemistry and has already figured out how to win big games.
The three-point shooting may not be as consistent as most fans would like, but it doesn't seem like these guys depend as much on the three-point shot. There were plenty of games last year where if the three wasn't falling that this team was out of it, but that doesn't seem to be the case this year. There seems to be more of a consistent hustle that was missing last year as well as having a consistent big man in the middle. This is all very much needed as the SEC gauntlet may be the toughest it has ever been.
During the first week of the College Football Playoff, a huge talking point for a lot of SEC people was how much tougher the strength of schedule was in the SEC and how it wasn't rewarded properly. The NCAA basketball tournament committee seems to have a lot more respect for strength of schedule and with 10 teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25, we can only imagine how tough the SEC basketball regular season will be. Winning the SEC regular season crown will mean more than ever, and it will be an exciting race to the SEC tournament in Nashville.
Similar to the football season there are no off nights in the SEC on the hardwood, especially when going on the road. Just for perspective entering the last week before conference play South Carolina has the worst record at 9-3, and they had a great win last week over Clemson.
Nate Oats again has his team battle-tested before conference play, and appears far better for this year's run than last year. Conference play will begin on the fourth of January as we host an always-tough Oklahoma team.