By Griffin McVeigh
The calendar has finally turned to March and unsurprising to many, the Alabama Crimson Tide Men’s Basketball team is once again on the edge of making the NCAA Tournament. Most of the time looking from the outside in, the Crimson Tide find themselves in a similar position: needing to find a way to pick up victories that will propel their squad into the big dance.
Coming off a critical four-game stretch where they went a disappointing 2-2, Alabama wrapped up the final games of February with a win against South Carolina.
“I told our guys this was a game that would reveal a lot about our character,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said.
That character will now be judged for the final couple weeks of the season and be determined if it is good enough to make the NCAA Tournament. Off the court, the effort from an injury-riddled Alabama team has been one of the best in the country. On the court, games have been disappointing and left you scratching your head and wondering as to what is going on.
With two games remaining against the Vanderbilt Commodores and the Missouri Tigers, the Crimson Tide are still not worthy of making the NCAA Tournament this season.
Yet.
Positives About Alabama’s Resume
Alabama’s two biggest wins of the season have both come from SEC play and both at Coleman Coliseum. The Auburn Tigers and the LSU Tigers came to Tuscaloosa ranked fourth and 25th at the time respectively and the Crimson Tide were able to take care of business against them both. As of ESPN’s Bracketology on February 28, those two games are the two wins Alabama has against tournament teams from the SEC.
Herbert Jones and Alex Reese celebrate in the Alabama student section after defeating fourth-ranked Auburn at home (Photograph from Imagn.com)
Looking past those two wins, there is not much that stands out as eye-popping victories. A win against the Richmond Spiders out of the Atlantic 10 is a nice one, but Chris Mooney’s squad is not projected to make the field, currently listed as ‘First Four Out’.
What is keeping Alabama afloat is their current ranking in the NET. Ranked 40th in the country according to the metric, theoretically, the Crimson Tide are one of the best 68 teams in the country. However, factor in smaller conferences and teams from other power conferences, and it is not good enough.
Negatives About Alabama’s Resume
Usually, when you are looking at a team’s NCAA Tournament resume, the non-conference schedule is where teams make serious noise. Whether the noise is positive or negative, team’s schedule before their conference season begins determines if they are fit to make the NCAA Tournament.
In the case of Alabama, their non-conference games really hurt them, as there are not enough quality wins to put them over the edge of other bubble teams.
It all began in the first game of the season at home against the Penn Quakers. Even though star player Herb Jones left the game in the second half with an injury, the Quakers are the worst loss of the season for the Crimson Tide. Currently 14-11 overall, Penn is nowhere near an NCAA Tournament team, barring the Ivy League Tournament. Ranked No. 145 in the NET, a quadrant three loss at home can ruin a team’s season.
The Crimson Tide’s non-conference tournament this season was the Battle of Atlantis, where they faced the North Carolina Tar Heels, the Iowa State Cyclones, and the Southern Miss Golden Eagles. Going 1-2 in those three games, Alabama was only able to beat Southern Miss, picking up two losses against a North Carolina team currently dead last in the ACC and an Iowa State team second to last in the Big 12. Not seen as bad losses at the time have turned out to be catastrophic losses for Nate Oats’ team.
Head Coach Nate Oats and Forward Alex Reese on the sideline during the Battle for Atlantis matchup against Southern Miss. (Photograph from Imagn.com)
Going on the road to Happy Valley was the toughest test of the season for the non-conference and Alabama lost to the Penn State Ninty Lions after leading by as much as nine in the second half. The only other road non-conference game against an NCAA Tournament team was the Rhode Island Rams, where they embarrassed the Crimson Tide, 93-79.
Other Bubble Team’s Resume
As of the ESPN Bracketology posted on Feb 28, the ‘Last Four In’ teams are the Oklahoma Sooners, the Providence Friars, the University of Southern California Trojans, and the North Carolina State Wolfpack.
When looking at their resume’s compared to Alabama’s, it is fairly obvious why they are projected in the field and not the Crimson Tide.
Even though USC is the only of those four teams currently ranked ahead of Alabama in the NET rankings, what all three teams have that the Crimson Tide do not are quality wins away from home.
For USC it was a neutral site victories against LSU and on the road to the TCU Horned Frogs. Those two games are against solid teams from major conferences, good enough to push them into the NCAA Tournament.
The Wolfpack defeated reigning national champions, the Virginia Cavaliers, on the road. Only three teams have managed to do that this season, being one of the hardest places to play in the country.
Oklahoma defeated the Minnesota Gophers, the Oregon State Beavers, and the Missouri Tigers away from home to strengthen their resume. Despite those teams being from major conferences, the most impressive win road win for the Sooners has to be in Denton, TX against the North Texas Mean Green. Winning the Conference USA regular-season title, any win against a conference champion is a good one.
Finally, Providence was not considered to be a tournament team at the beginning of February, but have rattled off an impressive month in the Big East. Going 6-2 throughout the month, five of those wins were against ranked opponents. Widely considered the second-best conference in all of college basketball, the Friars are one of the hottest teams in the country.
Should Alabama Get In?
After the momentous win against LSU on Feb 15, Head Coach Nate Oats said: “I think we do (have a tournament team), to be honest with you.”
To some extent, Oats is right. Alabama is one of the scariest teams in the country with their lightning pace offense and their ability to drop 90 points on any given night.
However, when looking at the overall body of work, the Crimson Tide still have some work to do before being worthy of a postseason bid.
“The bottom line is, we don’t have enough wins,” Oats said on an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show.
The Crimson Tide have the chance to pick up wins beginning in the final week of the regular season at home to Vanderbilt and on the road to Missouri. Both are seen as must-win games, especially Tuesday’s game against the Commodores. Another quadrant three loss would end the Crimson Tide’s season unless they were to win the SEC tournament.
Assuming a 2-0 record from those two games, a win or two in Nashville in the conference tournament will more than likely be needed. If the SEC season ended today and the standings remained the same, Alabama would be slated to play against Arkansas in the first round of the SEC Tournament. After that, it would be a quarterfinal matchup against in-state rival Auburn for a rubber match.
At the moment, Nate Oats and his team will be arguing as to why they are capable of competing in this season’s edition of March Madness.
If they are able to get three or four wins to end the season, the Crimson Tide will be worthy of playing in the NCAA Tournament.
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