The No. 6 Alabama men’s basketball team played a good game for much of its contest against No. 5 Tennessee on Saturday. Unfortunately, that unraveled in the face of a late Volunteers rally that culminated in a buzzer beater for a 79-76 Tennessee win.
The road loss for the Crimson Tide meant an 0-1 start to a stretch of three regular season games against top 10-ranked teams. The other two games are Wednesday at home against No. 3 Florida, and on March 8 at No. 1 Auburn.
Those two games back-to-back are as unenviable as any in college basketball, especially at this point in the season. The Tennessee game was critical for Alabama’s chances of being selected as a No. 1 seed for the upcoming NCAA Tournament. A hard-earned win would have kept the Crimson Tide on the right track.
It is still a possibility that Nate Oats’ team can earn one of the top four overall seeds in the bracket, but there’s a strong chance that road starts with wins in both of these next two daunting games, at minimum.
The Crimson Tide and Tigers first faced off on Feb. 15 in Tuscaloosa, as the No. 1 (Auburn) and No. 2 (Alabama) teams in the AP Top 25. Auburn won that game by nine. Neville Arena is a notoriously difficult environment for road teams. Alabama most recently won in the building in February 2023.
Florida was 2-1 against Alabama last season, with the loss coming in overtime while the Gators’ wins were by a combined margin of 207-175. The third meeting between the two was the Crimson Tide’s last loss until it fell to UConn in the Final Four.
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