Bama Hoops Set for Postseason

The Alabama men’s basketball team finished the regular season on a two-game losing streak, losing at home to Vanderbilt and on the road to Missouri. Alabama is locked into the ninth seed of next week’s SEC tournament and will play the eighth seeded Tennessee Vols in the second round on Thursday at noon. The winner of that matchup will have to play the top-seeded Kentucky Wildcats on Friday at noon. Alabama’s only path to making the NCAA Tournament at this point is win the SEC Tournament.  

Alabama is projected to earn a five seed in the NIT according to thebarkingcrow.com and would travel to play UCLA in the opening round. The Crimson Tide finished the season with a 16-15 record, 8-10 in conference play. The 50-point scoring output against Missouri were the fewest points scored in a game this season by the Tide. 

Alabama has been hampered by injuries and unfortunate luck all season. The Crimson Tide lost James Rojas and Juwan Gary to ACL injuries in the preseason, standout transfer Jahvon Quinerly was ruled ineligible and never played for the Tide, Herb Jones missed action in the early part of the season and right in the middle of the SEC schedule with a wrist injury that hampered him on the offensive end, John Petty suffered an elbow injury to his shooting arm that forced him out of late season action. The Crimson Tide finished 325th out of 353 colleges in the Kenpom Luck Index.  

To make the NCAA Tournament the Tide would have to win four games in a row, something they have accomplished just once this season in January when they beat Auburn, Missouri, Vanderbilt and Kansas State consecutively. Alabama will take on Tennessee on Thursday at noon to begin its first postseason under Nate Oats. The game will be on TV on the SECnetwork and will be broadcast on 95.3The Bear locally, you can listen to Chris Stewart’s call anywhere using the 95.3The Bear APP or 953thebear.com/listen-live. 

Keep it locked in with Tide 100.9fm, tide1009.com/listen-live and the TIDE APP for all your updates on the Alabama Crimson Tide.