Alabama basketball has moved on to the 2nd Round of the NCAA Tournament and will face 7-seed Saint Mary's, the regular season champion of the West Coast Conference. A win would put the Crimson Tide into the Sweet 16 for the third straight season, a feat only accomplished one other time in program history when Wimp Sanderson led Alabama to three straight Sweet 16 births from 1985-87.
To get here, Alabama struggled, but ultimately pulled away late to beat 15-seed Robert Morris 90-81. It was far from the Crimson Tide's best effort, but the Colonials deserve a ton of credit for playing at a high-level and simply wanting it more. That kind of effort won't cut it for Alabama against an experienced and talented Gaels squad.
Saint Mary's came from behind to beat Vanderbilt, 59-56 to advance to the 2nd Round. Saint Mary's will make Alabama pay for not boxing out perhaps even more than Robert Morris did. The Gaels rank 2nd in the country in offensive rebound rate, grabbing north of 40% of their own misses.
After tipping off as the 2nd game of the day on Friday, Alabama fans will have to wait a little bit later in the day on Sunday for the Crimson Tide's matchup with the Gaels.
Alabama and Saint Mary's will tip off at 5:10 pm CT and will be televised by TNT. They will be the first leg of a TNT double-header with Michigan State and New Mexico following.
Alabama is a small betting favorite over Saint Mary's
This will be a difficult matchup for the Crimson Tide. Saint Mary's is a good team and sits with a 29-5 overall record. The Gaels have only lost twice in this calendar year.
Per FanDuel, Alabama is just a 5.5-point favorite on the opening line. That's slightly more than what KenPom projects. KenPom has Alabama as a four-point favorite, predicting a 77-73 win for the Crimson Tide.
It will take a strong effort on both ends of the floor for Alabama to leave Cleveland with a berth in the Sweet 16. Saint Mary's is a good, fundamentally sound team that will make the Crimson Tide pay for the little mistakes that have seemingly plagued them all season long.
If Alabama doesn't bring more effort to their second-round matchup than they did against Robert Morris in the first round, the Gaels are plenty good enough to send them home.