No. 3 Alabama held off a late rally to walk away from Bud Walton Arena with an 85-80 win over Arkansas Saturday for its sixth consecutive win in SEC play. The Crimson Tide’s victory, along with No. 1 Auburn’s 90-81 loss to No. 6 Florida and No. 2 Duke’s 77-71 loss to Clemson earlier in the day, clears the path for Alabama to be ranked No. 1 in the major polls when they are updated Monday.
The Crimson Tide are tied atop the SEC standings with Auburn at 9-1 in the conference with a showdown between the two teams scheduled for Saturday in Tuscaloosa.
Crimson Tide big man Grant Nelson scored a team-high 15 points, while Chris Youngblood also added 15. Six different Alabama players scored at least eight points in the win over the Razorbacks. Arkansas had a chance to tie the game in the final moments, but Alabama elected to foul before the Razorbacks were able to put up a shot.
Changes coming to Monday’s polls
With No. 1 Auburn and No. 2 Duke losing Saturday, the door could be open for the Crimson Tide to move to No. 1 on Monday. The Tigers received all 62 first-place votes last week and had Duke taken care of business against Clemson, the Blue Devils would’ve had a strong case to move to the top of the poll.
It’s still possible that the voters keep Nos. 1-3 unchanged. Auburn bolsters the best résumé in the country with 12 Quad 1 victories. The lone losses Bruce Pearl’s program has sustained this season are on the road against Duke and at home against Florida. No. 4 Tennessee could move into the top three following its blowout win over Oklahoma.
Duke’s case for No. 1 would’ve been simple had the Blue Devils defeated Clemson. Duke entered the weekend riding a 16-game winning streak with wins over Auburn, Louisville and North Carolina during the stretch. The Blue Devils lost to Kentucky and Kansas during the first month but had been cruising against ACC competition until running into a roadblock against Clemson.
Alabama’s case for No. 1 at this moment could be more complicated. The Crimson Tide have losses on their résumé to Purdue, Oregon and Ole Miss. Alabama started SEC play 3-0 and had won eight consecutive games before losing to Ole Miss at home last month.
Regardless of how the latest poll shakes out at the top, the winner of next weekend’s matchup between Alabama and Auburn will likely be No. 1 later this month. Alabama faces Texas on Tuesday before beginning a gauntlet that includes seven consecutive games against ranked opponents to close out the regular season.
Alabama moves up in Bracketology
CBS Sports Bracketology Expert Jerry Palm moved Alabama from the No. 3 overall seed to the overal No. 2 seed with the win over Arkansas, while Duke will drop to the No. 3 overall seed in his next updated bracket projection.
“Duke will drop a spot behind Alabama, but not off the top line entirely, due to the depth of quality of Alabama’s wins,” Palm said,
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